Artists' Beards, Mustaches, and Facial Hair

LAA Pitcher, Archie Bradley

I've been noticing the wild and often untamed facial hair of Major League Baseball of late while watching the Seattle Mariners on TV. Pitchers are known to 'paint' the corners of the strike zone. One of the more tamed beards belongs to Los Angeles Angels pitcher, Archie Bradley. It would fall into the category of a Garibaldi beard, after the famous Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi.

LAA Outfielder, Brandon Marsh

LAA Outfielder, Brandon Marsh's is the polar opposite, including more of a Forest Gump look. 

Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk
(Early 1500s), da Vinci

It reminds me of portraits of old masters like Leonardo da Vinci and the statue of Michelangelo's Moses.

Impressionist, Camille Pissarro

M's Pitcher, Sergio Romo

Seattle Mariners pitcher, Sergio Romo's beard is also impressive, reminding me of Impressionists Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet, though opposite in color, like that of St. Nicholas. Romo's beard would be that of a Garibaldi style if it was less than 8 inches in length.

Autumn (1573), Arcimboldo

Artist, Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Autumn (1573) is a portrait of a man comprised of fruits and vegetables, including a beard made out of wheat.

Self-Portrait with Sunflower (~1633), Van Dyck

The van dyke style of beard popular in the 17th century was named after Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck. Unlike the goatee, a van dyke is often pointed and also includes a mustache. You may remember the actor, Monte Woolley, from the 1942 movie The Man Who Came to Dinner co-starring Bette Davis. He also played an eccentric writer in The Bishop's Wife (1947) opposite David Niven and Cary Grant. Let's not forget General Armstrong Custer and KFC's iconic Colonel Sanders.

Dali Photographic Closeup

Often, it's the mustache that stands out most among the wearers of facial hair. One of the most iconic belongs to Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dali. I enjoy teaching about contrast and opposite colors to elementary school students using Dali's Persistence of Memory (1931). He was as eccentric as his unusual paintings, keeping an ocelot as a pet, and focusing on Sigmund Freud and his study of dreams. Perhaps he should have spent more time taming those bushy eyebrows!

Portrait of Joseph Roulin (1889), Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh and other artists painted portraits of men sporting muttonchops. This style of beard often leaves the chin area without hair and the mustache area also shaven. Hugh Jackman's X-Men character, Wolverine sports such a beard sans mustache. Such split beards are known as French forks.

Self Portrait Dedicated to
Dr. Eloesser (1940), Frida Kahlo

Another of my favorites is Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, famous for her somewhat unique and iconic unibrow. Nowadays, even men will groom their eyebrows -- some may refer to them as 'metrosexuals'. Back in the day, when men let their beards grow wild, they also let their eyebrows and ear and nose hairs go untrimmed. In my opinion, if you're going to bother to precisely trim a mustache, goatee, or van dyke style beard, then you should also pay attention to those other wild areas. I'll forgive those who grow full beards as long as they occasionally trim them and always keep them void of food remnants!

Kenneth Branagh

David Suchet

Another mustache example is that of Agatha Christie's character, Hercule Poirot. I've been watching reruns of the 1989 TV series starring David Suchet as Poirot. His signature stache looks fake and almost plastic. The more recent Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022) films, starring Kenneth Branagh as the famous sleuth, created a much more believable, even spectacular, layered mustache, complete with soul patch.

(Apparently, Poirot's stache is meant to cover up scars from lacerations he suffered during a WWI explosion.)