PORTRAIT
A portrait is a representation of a particular person. A self-portrait is a portrait of the artist by the artist.
The purpose of a portrait is to memorialize an image of someone for the future. It can be done with painting, photography, sculpture, or almost any other medium.
Some portraiture is also created by artists purely for the sake of creating art, rather than working on commission. The human body and face are fascinating subjects that many artists like to study in their personal work.
Types of Portraits in Art
- Portraiture as Sculpture
While we tend to think of a portrait as a two-dimensional piece of artwork, the term can also apply to sculpture. When a sculptor focuses on just the head or the head and neck, it is called a portrait.
- Representative Portraiture
Sometimes a portrait includes inanimate objects that represent the subject's identity. It doesn't necessarily have to include the subject itself.
Francis Picabia's portrait of Alfred Stieglitz "Ici, C'est Ici Stieglitz" ("Here is Stieglitz," 1915, Stieglitz Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art) depicts only a broken bellows camera. Stieglitz was a famous photographer, dealer, and Georgia O'Keeffe's husband. The early twentieth-century Modernists loved machines and Picabia's affection for both the machine and Stieglitz is expressed in this work.
- The Size of Portraits
Portraiture can come in any size. When a painting was the only way to capture a person's likeness, many well-to-do families chose to memorialize people in "portrait miniatures." These paintings were often done in enamel, gouache, or watercolor on animal skin, ivory, velum, or a similar support. The details of these tiny portraits—often just a couple of inches—are amazing and created by extremely talented artists.
Portraits can also be very large. We often think of paintings of royalty and world leaders hanging in enormous halls. The canvas itself can, at times, be larger than the person was in real life.
However, the majority of painted portraiture falls in between these two extremes. Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" (ca. 1503) is probably the most famous portrait in the world and it was painted on a 2-foot, 6-inch by 1-foot, 9-inch poplar panel. Many people do not realize how small it is until they see it in person.
Portraiture can come in any size. When a painting was the only way to capture a person's likeness, many well-to-do families chose to memorialize people in "portrait miniatures." These paintings were often done in enamel, gouache, or watercolor on animal skin, ivory, velum, or a similar support. The details of these tiny portraits—often just a couple of inches—are amazing and created by extremely talented artists.
Portraits can also be very large. We often think of paintings of royalty and world leaders hanging in enormous halls. The canvas itself can, at times, be larger than the person was in real life.
However, the majority of painted portraiture falls in between these two extremes. Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" (ca. 1503) is probably the most famous portrait in the world and it was painted on a 2-foot, 6-inch by 1-foot, 9-inch poplar panel. Many people do not realize how small it is until they see it in person.
