Portrait painting

See Portrait for more about the general

topic of portraits.

The official Chinese court portrait painting of

Empress Cao (wife of Emperor Renzong) of Song
Dynasty, 11th century
Portrait painting is a genre in painting,
where the intent is to depict a human
subject. The term 'portrait painting' can
also describe the actual painted portrait.
Portraitists may create their work by
commission, for public and private
persons, or they may be inspired by
admiration or affection for the subject.
Portraits are often important state and
family records, as well as remembrances.

Historically, portrait paintings have

primarily memorialized the rich and
powerful. Over time, however, it became
more common for middle-class patrons
to commission portraits of their families
and colleagues. Today, portrait paintings
are still commissioned by governments,
corporations, groups, clubs, and
individuals. In addition to painting,
portraits can also be made in other
media such as prints (including etching
and lithography), photography, video and
digital media.

Technique and practice

Anthony van Dyck, Charles I in Three Positions,

1635-1636, shows profile, full face and three-quarter
views, to send to Bernini in Rome, who was to sculpt
a bust from this model.
A well-executed portrait is expected to
show the inner essence of the subject
(from the artist's point of view) or a
flattering representation, not just a literal
likeness. As Aristotle stated, "The aim of
Art is to present not the outward
appearance of things, but their inner
significance; for this, not the external
manner and detail, constitutes true
reality."[1] Artists may strive for
photographic realism or an
impressionistic similarity in depicting
their subject, but this differs from a
caricature which attempts to reveal
character through exaggeration of
physical features. The artist generally
attempts a representative portrayal, as
Edward Burne-Jones stated, "The only
expression allowable in great portraiture
is the expression of character and moral
quality, not anything temporary, fleeting,
or accidental."[2]

In most cases, this results in a serious,

closed lip stare, with anything beyond a
slight smile being rather rare historically.
Or as Charles Dickens put it, "there are
only two styles of portrait painting: the
serious and the smirk."[3] Even given
these limitations, a full range of subtle
emotions is possible from quiet menace
to gentle contentment. However, with the
mouth relatively neutral, much of the
facial expression needs to be created
through the eyes and eyebrows. As
author and artist Gordon C. Aymar states,
"the eyes are the place one looks for the
most complete, reliable, and pertinent
information" about the subject. And the
eyebrows can register, "almost single-
handedly, wonder, pity, fright, pain,
cynicism, concentration, wistfulness,
displeasure, and expectation, in infinite
variations and combinations."[4]

Portrait painting can depict the subject

"full-length" (the whole body), "half-
length" (from head to waist or hips),
"head and shoulders" (bust), or just the
head. The subject's head may turn from
"full face" (front view) to profile (side
view); a "three-quarter view" ("two-thirds
view") is somewhere in between, ranging
from almost frontal to almost profile (the
fraction is the sum of the profile [one-half
of the face] plus the other side's "quarter-
face";[5] alternatively, each side is
considered a third). Occasionally, artists
have created composites with views
from multiple directions, as with Anthony
van Dyck's triple portrait of Charles I in
Three Positions.[6] There are even a few
portraits where the front of the subject is
not visible at all. Andrew Wyeth's
Christina's World (1948) is a famous
example, where the pose of the disabled
girl – with her back turned to the viewer
– integrates with the setting in which she
is placed to convey the artist's
interpretation.[7]

Mme. Charpentier and her children, 1878,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of George Washington, c.1796

Among the other possible variables, the
subject can be clothed or nude; indoors
or out; standing, seated, reclining; even
horse-mounted. Portrait paintings can be
of individuals, couples, parents and
children, families, or collegial groups.
They can be created in various media
including oils, watercolor, pen and ink,
pencil, charcoal, pastel, and mixed
media. Artists may employ a wide-
ranging palette of colors, as with Pierre-
Auguste Renoir's Mme. Charpentier and
her children, 1878 or restrict themselves
to mostly white or black, as with Gilbert
Stuart's Portrait of George Washington
(1796).
Sometimes, the overall size of the
portrait is an important consideration.
Chuck Close's enormous portraits
created for museum display differ greatly
from most portraits designed to fit in the
home or to travel easily with the client.
Frequently, an artist takes into account
where the final portrait will hang and the
colors and style of the surrounding
décor.[8]

Creating a portrait can take considerable

time, usually requiring several sittings.
Cézanne, on one extreme, insisted on
over 100 sittings from his subject.[9]
Goya on the other hand, preferred one
long day's sitting.[10] The average is
about four.[11] Portraitists sometimes
present their sitters with a portfolio of
drawings or photos from which a sitter
would select a preferred pose, as did Sir
Joshua Reynolds. Some, such as Hans
Holbein the Younger make a drawing of
the face, then complete the rest of the
painting without the sitter.[12] In the 18th
century, it would typically take about one
year to deliver a completed portrait to a
client.[13]

Managing the sitter's expectations and

mood is a serious concern for the
portrait artist. As to the faithfulness of
the portrait to the sitter's appearance,
portraitists are generally consistent in
their approach. Clients who sought out
Sir Joshua Reynolds knew that they
would receive a flattering result, while
sitters of Thomas Eakins knew to expect
a realistic, unsparing portrait. Some
subjects voice strong preferences, others
let the artist decide entirely. Oliver
Cromwell famously demanded that his
portrait show "all these roughnesses,
pimples, warts, and everything as you
see me, otherwise I will never pay a
farthing for it."[14]

After putting the sitter at ease and

encouraging a natural pose, the artist
studies his subject, looking for the one
facial expression, out of many
possibilities, that satisfies his concept of
the sitter's essence. The posture of the
subject is also carefully considered to
reveal the emotional and physical state
of the sitter, as is the costume. To keep
the sitter engaged and motivated, the
skillful artist will often maintain a
pleasant demeanor and conversation.
Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun advised fellow
artists to flatter women and compliment
their appearance to gain their
cooperation at the sitting.[14]

Central to the successful execution of

the portrait is a mastery of human
anatomy. Human faces are asymmetrical
and skillful portrait artists reproduce this
with subtle left-right differences. Artists
need to be knowledgeable about the
underlying bone and tissue structure to
make a convincing portrait.

Margaret in Skating Costume by Thomas Eakins

For complex compositions, the artist

may first do a complete pencil, ink,
charcoal, or oil sketch which is
particularly useful if the sitter's available
time is limited. Otherwise, the general
form then a rough likeness is sketched
out on the canvas in pencil, charcoal, or
thin oil. In many cases, the face is
completed first, and the rest afterwards.
In the studios of many of the great
portrait artists, the master would do only
the head and hands, while the clothing
and background would be completed by
the principal apprentices. There were
even outside specialists who handled
specific items such as drapery and
clothing, such as Joseph van Aken[15]
Some artists in past times used lay-
figures or dolls to help establish and
execute the pose and the clothing.[16]
The use of symbolic elements placed
around the sitter (including signs,
household objects, animals, and plants)
was often used to encode the painting
with the moral or religious character of
the subject, or with symbols representing
the sitter's occupation, interests, or social
status. The background can be totally
black and without content or a full scene
which places the sitter in their social or
recreational milieu.

Self-portraits are usually produced with

the help of a mirror, and the finished
result is a mirror-image portrait, a
reversal of what occurs in a normal
portrait when sitter and artist are
opposite each other. In a self-portrait, a
righted handed artist would appear to be
holding a brush in the left hand, unless
the artist deliberately corrects the image
or uses a second reversing mirror while
painting.

Jacques-Louis David, portrait of Madame Récamier

(1800), Musée du Louvre, Paris

Occasionally, the client or the client's

family is unhappy with the resulting
portrait and the artist is obliged to re-
touch it or do it over or withdraw from the
commission without being paid, suffering
the humiliation of failure. Jacques-Louis
David celebrated portrait of Madame
Récamier, wildly popular in exhibitions,
was rejected by the sitter, as was John
Singer Sargent's notorious Portrait of
Madame X. John Trumbull's full-length
portrait, General George Washington at
Trenton, was rejected by the committee
that commissioned it.[17] The famously
prickly Gilbert Stuart once replied to a
client's dissatisfaction with his wife's
portrait by retorting, "You brought me a
potato, and you expect a peach!"[18]

A successful portrait, however, can gain

the lifelong gratitude of a client. Count
Balthazar was so pleased with the
portrait Raphael had created of his wife
that he told the artist, "Your image…alone
can lighten my cares. That image is my
delight; I direct my smiles to it, it is my
joy."[19]

History
Ancient world

Roman-Egyptian funeral portrait of a woman

Portraiture's roots are likely found in
prehistoric times, although few of these
works survive today. In the art of the
ancient civilizations of the Fertile
Crescent, especially in Egypt, depictions
of rulers and gods abound. However,
most of these were done in a highly
stylized fashion, and most in profile,
usually on stone, metal, clay, plaster, or
crystal. Egyptian portraiture placed
relatively little emphasis on likeness, at
least until the period of Akhenaten in the
14th century BC. Portrait painting of
notables in China probably goes back to
over 1000 BC, though none survive from
that age. Existing Chinese portraits go
back to about 1000 AD[20]
From literary evidence we know that
ancient Greek painting included
portraiture, often highly accurate if the
praises of writers are to be believed, but
no painted examples remain. Sculpted
heads of rulers and famous personalities
like Socrates survive in some quantity,
and like the individualized busts of
Hellenistic rulers on coins, show that
Greek portraiture could achieve a good
likeness, and subjects were depicted with
relatively little flattery - Socrates'
portraits show why he had a reputation
for being ugly. The successors of
Alexander the Great began the practice
of adding his head (as a deified figure) to
their coins, and were soon using their
own.

Roman portraiture adopted traditions of

portraiture from both the Etruscans and
Greeks, and developed a very strong
tradition, linked to their religious use of
ancestor portraits, as well as Roman
politics. Again, the few painted survivals,
in the Fayum portraits, Tomb of Aline and
the Severan Tondo, all from Egypt under
Roman rule, are clearly provincial
productions that reflect Greek rather than
Roman styles, but we have a wealth of
sculpted heads, including many
individualized portraits from middle-class
tombs, and thousands of types of coin
portraits.

Much the largest group of painted

portraits are the funeral paintings that
survived in the dry climate of Egypt's
Fayum district (see illustration, below),
dating from the 2nd to 4th century AD.
These are almost the only paintings of
the Roman period that have survived,
aside from frescos, though it is known
from the writings of Pliny the Elder that
portrait painting was well established in
Greek times, and practiced by both men
and women artists.[21] In his times, Pliny
complained of the declining state of
Roman portrait art, "The painting of
portraits which used to transmit through
the ages the accurate likenesses of
people, has entirely gone out…Indolence
has destroyed the arts." [22][23] These full-
face portraits from Roman Egypt are
fortunate exceptions. They present a
somewhat realistic sense of proportion
and individual detail (though the eyes are
generally oversized and the artistic skill
varies considerably from artist to artist).
The Fayum portraits were painted on
wood or ivory in wax and resin colors
(encaustic) or with tempera, and inserted
into the mummy wrapping, to remain with
the body through eternity.
While free-standing portrait painting
diminished in Rome, the art of the
portrait flourished in Roman sculptures,
where sitters demanded realism, even if
unflattering. During the 4th century, the
sculpted portrait dominated, with a
retreat in favor of an idealized symbol of
what that person looked like. (Compare
the portraits of Roman Emperors
Constantine I and Theodosius I) In the
Late Antique period the interest in an
individual likeness declined considerably,
and most portraits in late Roman coins
and consular diptychs are hardly
individualized at all, although at the same
time Early Christian art was evolving
fairly standardized images for the
depiction of Jesus and the other major
figures in Christian art, such as John the
Baptist, and Saint Peter.

Middle Ages

The small private Wilton Diptych for Richard II of

England, c. 1400, with stamped gold backgrounds
and much ultramarine.

Most early medieval portraits were donor

portraits, initially mostly of popes in
Roman mosaics, and illuminated
manuscripts, an example being a self-
portrait by the writer, mystic, scientist,
illuminator, and musician Hildegard of
Bingen (1152).[24] As with contemporary
coins, there was little attempt at a
likeness. Stone tomb monuments spread
in the Romanesque period. Between
1350-1400, secular figures began to
reappear in frescos and panel paintings,
such as in Master Theodoric's Charles IV
receiving fealty,[25] and portraits once
again became clear likenesses. Around
the end of the century, the first oil
portraits of contemporary individuals,
painted on small wood panels, emerged
in Burgundy and France, first as profiles,
then in other views. The Wilton Diptych of
ca. 1400 is one of two surviving panel
portraits of Richard II of England, the
earliest English King for whom we have
contemporary examples. Leading Early
Netherlandish masters of the portrait
included Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin
and Rogier van der Weyden. Portraits of
donors began to be shown as present, or
participate in the main sacred scenes
shown, and in more private court images
subjects even appeared as significant
figures such as the Virgin Mary.

Renaissance
 

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1500

The Renaissance marked a turning point

in the history of portraiture. Partly out of
interest in the natural world and partly
out of interest in the classical cultures of
ancient Greece and Rome, portraits—
both painted and sculpted—were given
an important role in Renaissance society
and valued as objects, and as depictions
of earthly success and status. Painting in
general reached a new level of balance,
harmony, and insight, and the greatest
artists (Leonardo, Michelangelo, and
Raphael) were considered "geniuses",
rising far above the tradesman status to
valued servants of the court and the
church.[26]

Many innovations in the various forms of

portraiture evolved during this fertile
period. The tradition of the portrait
miniature began, which remained popular
until the age of photography, developing
out of the skills of painters of the
miniatures in illuminated manuscripts.
Profile portraits, inspired by ancient
medallions, were particularly popular in
Italy between 1450 and 1500. Medals,
with their two–sided images, also
inspired a short-lived vogue for two-sided
paintings early in the Renaissance.[27]
Classical sculpture, such as the Apollo
Belvedere, also influenced the choice of
poses utilized by Renaissance
portraitists, poses that have continued in
usage through the centuries.[28]

Northern European artists led the way in

realistic portraits of secular subjects.
The greater realism and detail of the
Northern artists during the 15th century
was due in part to the finer brush strokes
and effects possible with oil colors, while
the Italian and Spanish painters were still
using tempera. Among the earliest
painters to develop oil technique was Jan
van Eyck. Oil colors can produce more
texture and grades of thickness, and can
be layered more effectively, with the
addition of increasingly thick layers one
over another (known by painters as ‘fat
over lean’). Also, oil colors dry more
slowly, allowing the artist to make
changes readily, such as altering facial
details. Antonello da Messina was one of
the first Italians to take advantage of oil.
Trained in Belgium, he settled in Venice
around 1475, and was a major influence
on Giovanni Bellini and the Northern
Italian school.[29] During the 16th century,
oil as a medium spread in popularity
throughout Europe, allowing for more
sumptuous renderings of clothing and
jewelry. Also affecting the quality of the
images, was the switch from wood to
canvas, starting in Italy in the early part
of the 16th century and spreading to
Northern Europe over the next century.
Canvas resists cracking better than
wood, holds pigments better, and needs
less preparation―but it was initially much
scarcer than wood.

Early on, the Northern Europeans

abandoned the profile, and started
producing portraits of realistic volume
and perspective. In the Netherlands, Jan
van Eyck was a leading portraitist. The
Arnolfini Marriage (1434, National Gallery,
London) is a landmark of Western art, an
early example of a full-length couple
portrait, superbly painted in rich colors
and exquisite detail. But equally
important, it showcases the newly
developed technique of oil painting
pioneered by van Eyck, which
revolutionized art, and spread throughout
Europe.[30]

Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Sir Thomas

More, 1527
Leading German portrait artists including
Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Dürer, and Hans
Holbein the Younger who all mastered oil
painting technique. Cranach was one of
the first artists to paint life-sized full-
length commissions, a tradition popular
from then on.[31] At that time, England
had no portrait painters of the first rank,
and artists like Holbein were in demand
by English patrons.[32] His painting of Sir
Thomas More (1527), his first important
patron in England, has nearly the realism
of a photograph.[33] Holbein made his
great success painting the royal family,
including Henry VIII. Dürer was an
outstanding draftsman and one of the
first major artists to make a sequence of
self-portraits, including a full-face
painting. He also placed his self-portrait
figure (as an onlooker) in several of his
religious paintings.[34] Dürer began
making self-portraits at the age of
thirteen.[35] Later, Rembrandt would
amplify that tradition.

In Italy, Masaccio led the way in

modernizing the fresco by adopting more
realistic perspective. Filippo Lippi paved
the way in developing sharper contours
and sinuous lines[36] and his pupil
Raphael extended realism in Italy to a
much higher level in the following
decades with his monumental wall
paintings.[37] During this time, the
betrothal portrait became popular, a
particular specialty of Lorenzo Lotto.[38]
During the early Renaissance, portrait
paintings were generally small and
sometimes covered with protective lids,
hinged or sliding.[39]

During the Renaissance, the Florentine

and Milanese nobility, in particular,
wanted more realistic representations of
themselves. The challenge of creating
convincing full and three-quarter views
stimulated experimentation and
innovation. Sandro Botticelli, Piero della
Francesca, Domenico Ghirlandaio,
Lorenzo di Credi, and Leonardo da Vinci
and other artists expanded their
technique accordingly, adding portraiture
to traditional religious and classical
subjects. Leonardo and Pisanello were
among the first Italian artists to add
allegorical symbols to their secular
portraits.[37]

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa or La Gioconda, 1503–

1505/1507

One of best-known portraits in the

Western world is Leonardo da Vinci's
painting titled Mona Lisa, named for Lisa
del Giocondo,[40][41][42] a member of the
Gherardini family of Florence and
Tuscany and the wife of wealthy
Florentine silk merchant Francesco del
Giocondo. The famous "Mona Lisa smile"
is an excellent example of applying
subtle asymmetry to a face. In his
notebooks, Leonardo advises on the
qualities of light in portrait painting:

A very high degree of grace in

the light and shadow is added
to the faces of those who sit in
the doorways of rooms that are
dark, where the eyes of the
 observer see the shadowed
part of the face obscured by the
shadows of the room, and see
the lighted part of the face with
the greater brilliance which the
air gives it. Through this
increase in the shadows and
the lights, the face is given
greater relief.[43]

Leonardo was a student of Verrocchio.

After becoming a member of the Guild of
Painters, he began to accept independent
commissions. Owing to his wide-ranging
interests and in accordance with his
scientific mind, his output of drawings
and preliminary studies is immense
though his finished artistic output is
relatively small. His other memorable
portraits included those of noblewomen
Ginevra de’ Benci and Cecilia Gallerani.[44]

Raphael's surviving commission portraits

are far more numerous than those of
Leonardo, and they display a greater
variety of poses, lighting, and technique.
Rather than producing revolutionary
innovations, Raphael's great
accomplishment was strengthening and
refining the evolving currents of
Renaissance art.[45] He was particularly
expert in the group portrait. His
masterpiece the School of Athens is one
of the foremost group frescoes,
containing likenesses of Leonardo,
Michelangelo, Bramante, and Raphael
himself, in the guise of ancient
philosophers.[46] It was not the first group
portrait of artists. Decades earlier, Paolo
Uccello had painted a group portrait
including Giotto, Donatello, Antonio
Manetti, and Brunelleschi.[34] As he rose
in prominence, Raphael became a
favorite portraitist of the popes. While
many Renaissance artists eagerly
accepted portrait commissions, a few
artists refused them, most notably
Raphael's rival Michelangelo, who
instead undertook the huge
commissions of the Sistine Chapel.[37]
In Venice around 1500, Gentile Bellini and
Giovanni Bellini dominated portrait
painting. They received the highest
commissions from the leading officials
of the state. Bellini's portrait of Doge
Loredan is considered to be one of the
finest portraits of the Renaissance and
ably demonstrates the artist's mastery of
the newly arrived techniques of oil
painting.[47] Bellini is also one of the first
artists in Europe to sign their work,
though he rarely dated them.[48] Later in
the 16th century, Titian assumed much
the same role, particularly by expanding
the variety of poses and sittings of his
royal subjects. Titian was perhaps the
first great child portraitist.[49] After Titian,
Tintoretto and Veronese became leading
Venetian artists, helping the transition to
Italian Mannerism. The Mannerists
contributed many exceptional portraits
that emphasized material richness and
elegantly complex poses, as in the works
of Agnolo Bronzino and Jacopo da
Pontormo. Bronzino made his fame
portraying the Medici family. His daring
portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici, shows the
austere ruler in armor with a wary eye
gazed to his extreme right, in sharp
contrast to most royal paintings which
show their sitters as benign
sovereigns.[50] El Greco, who trained in
Venice for twelve years, went in a more
extreme direction after his arrival in
Spain, emphasizing his "inner vision" of
the sitter to the point of diminishing the
reality of physical appearance.[51] One of
the best portraitists of 16th-century Italy
was Sofonisba Anguissola from
Cremona, who infused her individual and
group portraits with new levels of
complexity.

Court portraiture in France began when

Flemish artist Jean Clouet painted his
opulent likeness of Francis I of France
around 1525.[52] King Francis was a great
patron of artists and an avaricious art
collector who invited Leonardo da Vinci
to live in France during his later years.
The Mona Lisa stayed in France after
Leonardo died there.[52]

Baroque and Rococo

Rembrandt group portrait, The Syndics of the

Clothmaker's Guild, 1662.

During the Baroque and Rococo periods

(17th and 18th centuries, respectively),
portraits became even more important
records of status and position. In a
society dominated increasingly by
secular leaders in powerful courts,
images of opulently attired figures were a
means to affirm the authority of
important individuals. Flemish painters
Sir Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul
Rubens excelled at this type of
portraiture, while Jan Vermeer produced
portraits mostly of the middle class, at
work and play indoors. Rubens’ portrait
of himself and his first wife (1609) in
their wedding attire is a virtuoso example
of the couple portrait.[53] Rubens fame
extended beyond his art—he was a
courtier, diplomat, art collector, and
successful businessman. His studio was
one of the most extensive of that time,
employing specialists in still-life,
landscape, animal and genre scenes, in
addition to portraiture. Van Dyck trained
there for two years.[54] Charles I of
England first employed Rubens, then
imported van Dyck as his court painter,
knighting him and bestowing on him
courtly status. Van Dyck not only adapted
Rubens’ production methods and
business skills, but also his elegant
manners and appearance. As was
recorded, "He always went magnificently
dress’d, had a numerous and gallant
equipage, and kept so noble a table in his
apartment, that few princes were not
more visited, or better serv’d."[55] In
France, Hyacinthe Rigaud dominated in
much the same way, as a remarkable
chronicler of royalty, painting the
portraits of five French kings.[56]

One of the innovations of Renaissance

art was the improved rendering of facial
expressions to accompany different
emotions. In particular, Dutch painter
Rembrandt explored the many
expressions of the human face,
especially as one of the premier self-
portraitists (of which he painted over 60
in his lifetime).[57] This interest in the
human face also fostered the creation of
the first caricatures, credited to the
Carracci Academy, run by painters of the
Carracci family in the late 16th century in
Bologna, Italy (see Annibale Carracci).
 

Velázquez, Pope Innocent X, c. 1650, Doria Pamphilj

Gallery, Rome.

Group portraits were produced in great

numbers during the Baroque period,
particularly in the Netherlands. Unlike in
the rest of Europe, Dutch artists received
no commissions from the Calvinist
Church which had forbidden such images
or from the aristocracy which was
virtually non-existent. Instead,
commissions came from civic and
businesses associations. Dutch painter
Frans Hals used fluid brush strokes of
vivid color to enliven his group portraits,
including those of the civil guards to
which he belonged. Rembrandt
benefitted greatly from such
commissions and from the general
appreciation of art by bourgeois clients,
who supported portraiture as well as still-
life and landscapes painting. In addition,
the first significant art and dealer
markets flourished in Holland at that
time.[58]

With plenty of demand, Rembrandt was

able to experiment with unconventional
composition and technique, such as
chiaroscuro. He demonstrated these
innovations, pioneered by Italian masters
such as Caravaggio, most notably in his
famous Night Watch (1642).[59] The
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (1632) is
another fine example of Rembrandt's
mastery of the group painting, in which
he bathes the corpse in bright light to
draw attention to the center of the
painting while the clothing and
background merge into black, making the
faces of the surgeon and the students
standout. It is also the first painting that
Rembrandt signed with his full name.[60]
In Spain, Diego Velázquez painted Las
Meninas (1656), one of the most famous
and enigmatic group portraits of all time.
It memorializes the artist and the
children of the Spanish royal family, and
apparently the sitters are the royal couple
who are seen only as reflections in a
mirror.[61] Starting out as primarily a
genre painter, Velázquez quickly rose to
prominence as the court painter of Philip
IV, excelling in the art of portraiture,
particularly in extending the complexity
of group portraits.[62]

Rococo artists, who were particularly

interested in rich and intricate
ornamentation, were masters of the
refined portrait. Their attention to the
details of dress and texture increased the
efficacy of portraits as testaments to
worldly wealth, as evidenced by François
Boucher's famous portraits of Madame
de Pompadour attired in billowing silk
gowns.

Thomas Gainsborough, The Blue Boy, c.1770,

Huntington Library, San Marino, California
The first major native portrait painters of
the British school were English painters
Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua
Reynolds, who also specialized in
clothing their subjects in an eye-catching
manner. Gainsborough's Blue Boy is one
of the most famous and recognized
portraits of all time, painted with very
long brushes and thin oil color to achieve
the shimmering effect of the blue
costume.[63] Gainsborough was also
noted for his elaborate background
settings for his subjects.

The two British artists had opposite

opinions on using assistants. Reynolds
employing them regularly (sometimes
doing only 20 percent of the painting
himself) while Gainsborough rarely
did.[64] Sometimes a client would extract
a pledge from the artist, as did Sir
Richard Newdegate from portraitist Peter
Lely (van Dyck's successor in England),
who promised that the portrait would be
"from the Beginning to ye end drawne
with my owne hands."[65] Unlike the
exactitude employed by the Flemish
masters, Reynolds summed up his
approach to portraiture by stating that,
"the grace, and, we may add, the likeness,
consists more in taking the general air,
than in observing the exact similitude of
every feature."[66] Also prominent in
England was William Hogarth, who dared
to buck conventional methods by
introducing touches of humor in his
portraits. His "Self-portrait with Pug" is
clearly more a humorous take on his pet
than a self-indulgent painting.[67]

In the 18th century, female painters

gained new importance, particularly in
the field of portraiture. Notable female
artists include French painter Élisabeth
Vigée-Lebrun, Italian pastel artist
Rosalba Carriera, and Swiss artist
Angelica Kauffman. Also during that
century, before the invention of
photography, miniature portraits―painted
with incredible precision and often
encased in gold or enameled
lockets―were highly valued.

In the United States, John Singleton

Copley, schooled in the refined British
manner, became the leading painter of
full-size and miniature portraits, with his
hyper-realistic pictures of Samuel Adams
and Paul Revere especially well-regarded.
Copley is also notable for his efforts to
merge portraiture with the academically
more revered art of history painting,
which he attempted with his group
portraits of famous military men.[68]
Equally famous was Gilbert Stuart who
painted over 1,000 portraits and was
especially known for his presidential
portraiture. Stuart painted over 100
replicas of George Washington alone.[69]
Stuart worked quickly and employed
softer, less detailed brush strokes than
Copley to capture the essence of his
subjects. Sometimes he would make
several versions for a client, allowing the
sitter to pick their favorite.[70] Noted for
his rosy cheek tones, Stuart wrote, "flesh
is like no other substance under heaven.
It has all the gaiety of the silk-mercer's
shop without its gaudiness of gloss, and
all the softness of old mahogany, without
its sadness." [71] Other prominent
American portraitists of the colonial era
were John Smibert, Thomas Sully, Ralph
Earl, John Trumbull, Benjamin West,
Robert Feke, James Peale, Charles
Willson Peale, and Rembrandt Peale.

19th century

Piotr Michałowski, Artist's daughter on horseback,

ca 1853, National Museum in Warsaw

In the late 18th century and early 19th

century, neoclassical artists continued
the tradition of depicting subjects in the
latest fashions, which for women by then,
meant diaphanous gowns derived from
ancient Greek and Roman clothing styles.
The artists used directed light to define
texture and the simple roundness of
faces and limbs. French painters
Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Auguste-
Dominique Ingres demonstrated
virtuosity in this draftsman-like technique
as well as a keen eye for character.
Ingres, a student of David, is notable for
his portraits in which a mirror is painted
behind the subject to simulate a rear
view of the subject.[72] His portrait of
Napoleon on his imperial throne is a tour
de force of regal portraiture. (see Gallery
below)
Romantic artists who worked during the
first half of the 19th century painted
portraits of inspiring leaders, beautiful
women, and agitated subjects, using
lively brush strokes and dramatic,
sometimes moody, lighting. French
artists Eugène Delacroix and Théodore
Géricault painted particularly fine
portraits of this type, especially dashing
horsemen.[73] A notable example of artist
of romantic period in Poland, who
practised a horserider portrait was Piotr
Michałowski (1800-1855). Also
noteworthy is Géricault's series of
portraits of mental patients (1822–
1824). Spanish painter Francisco de
Goya painted some of the most
searching and provocative images of the
period, including La maja desnuda (c.
1797-1800), as well as famous court
portraits of Charles IV.

Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875

The realist artists of the 19th century,

such as Gustave Courbet, created
objective portraits depicting lower and
middle-class people. Demonstrating his
romanticism, Courbet painted several
self-portraits showing himself in varying
moods and expressions.[74] Other French
realists include Honoré Daumier who
produced many caricatures of his
contemporaries. Henri de Toulouse-
Lautrec chronicled some of the famous
performers of the theater, including Jane
Avril, capturing them in motion.[75] French
painter Édouard Manet, was an important
transitional artist whose work hovers
between realism and impressionism. He
was a portraitist of outstanding insight
and technique, with his painting of
Stéphane Mallarmé being a good
example of his transitional style. His
contemporary Edgar Degas was primarily
a realist and his painting Portrait of the
Bellelli Family is an insightful rendering of
an unhappy family and one of his finest
portraits.[76]

In America, Thomas Eakins reigned as

the premier portrait painter, taking
realism to a new level of frankness,
especially with his two portraits of
surgeons at work, as well as those of
athletes and musicians in action. In many
portraits, such as "Portrait of Mrs. Edith
Mahon", Eakins boldly conveys the
unflattering emotions of sorrow and
melancholy.[77]
 

Vincent van Gogh, Self-portrait, 1887

The Realists mostly gave way to the

Impressionists by the 1870s. Partly due
to their meager incomes, many of the
Impressionists relied on family and
friends to model for them, and they
painted intimate groups and single
figures in either outdoors or in light-filled
interiors. Noted for their shimmering
surfaces and rich dabs of paint,
Impressionist portraits are often
disarmingly intimate and appealing.
French painters Claude Monet and Pierre-
Auguste Renoir created some of the
most popular images of individual sitters
and groups. American artist Mary
Cassatt, who trained and worked in
France, is popular even today for her
engaging paintings of mothers and
children, as is Renoir.[78] Paul Gauguin
and Vincent van Gogh, both Post-
Impressionists, painted revealing
portraits of people they knew, swirling in
color but not necessarily flattering. They
are equally, if not more so, celebrated for
their powerful self-portraits.
John Singer Sargent also spanned the
change of century, but he rejected overt
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.
He was the most successful portrait
painter of his era, using a mostly realistic
technique often effused with the brilliant
use of color. He was equally apt at
individual and group portraits,
particularly of upper-class families.
Sargent was born in Florence, Italy to
American parents. He studied in Italy and
Germany, and in Paris. Sargent is
considered to be the last major exponent
of the British portrait tradition beginning
with van Dyck.[78] Another prominent
American portraitist who trained abroad
was William Merritt Chase. American
society painter Cecilia Beaux, called the
"female Sargent", was born of a French
father, studied abroad and gained
success back home, sticking with
traditional methods. Another portraitist
compared to Sargent for his lush
technique was Italian-born Parisian artist
Giovanni Boldini, a friend of Degas and
Whistler.

American-born Internationalist James

Abbott McNeill Whistler was well-
connected with European artists and also
painted some exceptional portraits, most
famously his Arrangement in Grey and
Black, The Artist's Mother (1871), also
known as Whistler's Mother.[79] Even with
his portraits, as with his tonal
landscapes, Whistler wanted his viewers
to focus on the harmonic arrangement of
form and color in his paintings. Whistler
used a subdued palette to create his
intended effects, stressing color balance
and soft tones. As he stated, "as music is
the poetry of sound, so is painting the
poetry of sight, and the subject-matter
has nothing to do with the harmony of
sound or of color."[80] Form and color
were also central to Cézanne's portraits,
while even more extreme color and brush
stroke technique dominate the portraits
by André Derain, and Henri Matisse.[81]
The development of photography in the
19th century had a significant effect on
portraiture, supplanting the earlier
camera obscura which had also been
previously used as an aid in painting.
Many modernists flocked to the
photography studios to have their
portraits made, including Baudelaire who,
though he proclaimed photography an
"enemy of art", found himself attracted to
photography's frankness and power.[82]
By providing a cheap alternative,
photography supplanted much of the
lowest level of portrait painting. Some
realist artists, such as Thomas Eakins
and Edgar Degas, were enthusiastic
about camera photography and found it
to be a useful aid to composition. From
the Impressionists forward, portrait
painters found a myriad number of ways
to reinterpret the portrait to compete
effectively with photography.[83] Sargent
and Whistler were among those
stimulated to expand their technique to
create effects that the camera could not
capture.

20th century

Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1906, Metropolitan

Museum of Art New York City When someone
Museum of Art, New York City. When someone
commented that Stein did not look like her portrait,
Picasso replied, "She will".[84]

Other early 20th-century artists also

expanded the repertoire of portraiture in
new directions. Fauvist artist Henri
Matisse produced powerful portraits
using non-naturalistic, even garish, colors
for skin tones. Cézanne's relied on highly
simplified forms in his portraits, avoiding
detail while emphasizing color
juxtapositions.[85] Austrian Gustav Klimt's
unique style applied Byzantine motifs
and gold paint to his memorable
portraits. His pupil Oskar Kokoschka was
an important portraitist of the Viennese
upper class. Prolific Spanish artist Pablo
Picasso painted many portraits, including
several cubist renderings of his
mistresses, in which the likeness of the
subject is grossly distorted to achieve an
emotional statement well beyond the
bounds of normal caricature.[86] An
outstanding female portrait painter of the
turn of the 20th century, associated with
the French impressionism, was Olga
Boznańska (1865-1940). Expressionist
painters provided some of the most
haunting and compelling psychological
studies ever produced. German artists
such as Otto Dix and Max Beckmann
produced notable examples of
expressionist portraiture. Beckmann was
a prolific self-portraitist, producing at
least twenty-seven.[87] Amedeo
Modigliani painted many portraits in his
elongated style which depreciated the
"inner person" in favor of strict studies of
form and color. To help achieve this, he
de-emphasized the normally expressive
eyes and eyebrows to the point of
blackened slits and simple arches.[88]

British art was represented by the

Vorticists, who painted some notable
portraits in the early part of the 20th
century. The Dada painter Francis Picabia
executed numerous portraits in his
unique fashion. Additionally, Tamara de
Lempicka's portraits successfully
captured the Art Deco era with her
streamlined curves, rich colors and sharp
angles. In America, Robert Henri and
George Bellows were fine portraitists of
the 1920s and 1930s of the American
realist school. Max Ernst produced an
example of a modern collegial portrait
with his 1922 painting All Friends
Together.[89]

A significant contribution to the

development of portrait painting of 1930-
2000 was made by Russian artists,
mainly working in the traditions of realist
and figurative painting. Among them
should be called Isaak Brodsky, Nikolai
Fechin, Abram Arkhipov and others.[90]
Portrait production in Europe (excluding
Russia) and the Americas generally
declined in the 1940s and 1950s, a result
of the increasing interest in abstraction
and nonfigurative art. One exception,
however, was Andrew Wyeth who
developed into the leading American
realist portrait painter. With Wyeth,
realism, though overt, is secondary to the
tonal qualities and mood of his paintings.
This is aptly demonstrated with his
landmark series of paintings known as
the "Helga" pictures, the largest group of
portraits of a single person by any major
artist (247 studies of his neighbor Helga
Testorf, clothed and nude, in varying
surroundings, painted during the period
1971–1985).[91]

By the 1960s and 1970s, there was a

revival of portraiture. English artists such
as Lucian Freud (grandson of Sigmund
Freud) and Francis Bacon have produced
powerful paintings. Bacon's portraits are
notable for their nightmarish quality. In
May 2008, Freud's 1995 portrait Benefits
Supervisor Sleeping was sold by auction
by Christie's in New York City for $33.6
million, setting a world record for sale
value of a painting by a living artist.[92]

Many contemporary American artists,

such as Andy Warhol, Alex Katz and
Chuck Close, have made the human face
a focal point of their work.

Warhol was one of the most prolific

portrait painters in the 20th-century.
Warhol's painting Orange Shot Marilyn of
Marilyn Monroe is an iconic early
example off his work from the 1960s,
and Orange Prince (1984) of the pop
singer Prince is later example, both
exhibiting Warhol's unique graphic style
of portraiture.[93][94][95][96]

Close's specialty was huge, hyper-

realistic wall-sized "head" portraits based
on photographic images. Jamie Wyeth
continues in the realist tradition of his
father Andrew, producing famous
portraits whose subjects range from
Presidents to pigs.

Gallery
  

Court portrait of Empress Renhuai

(1016–1079) (wife of Emperor Qinzong)
of Song Dynasty, Chinese

Portrait of the Zen Buddhist Wuzhun

Shifan, 1238 AD, Chinese
  

Young girl with cherries by Ambrogio de

Predis ca. 1491–1495
  

Maarten van Heemskerck (1498–1574),

Family of Pieter Jan Foppesz, prior to
c.1532, considered the first family
portrait, in Dutch portraiture.[97]
  

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of

Martin Luther, 1529, Uffizi

Annibale Carracci, Portrait of a Man, Bust

Length, in a White Collar, 1580s
  

Portrait of Ho Bun (何斌), a late Ming

Dynasty Scholar-bureaucrat, late 16th
century to early 17th century, Chinese

Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Philip IV,

1632
  

Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of Jan Six,

1654

Thomas Kerrich (1748-1828), by Pompeo

Batoni
  

John Durand, The Rapalje Children, 1768,

New-York Historical Society, New York
City

John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1770

  

John Trumbull, General George

Washington at Trenton, 1792

Three Beauties of the Present Day by

Utamaro, 1793
  

Francisco de Goya, Charles IV of Spain

and His Family, 1800–1801

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, portrait

of Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, 1806,
Musée de l'Armée, Paris
  

Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon in His

Study (1812), National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
  

Eugène Delacroix, portrait of George

Sand, 1838, Ordrupgaard-Museum,
Copenhagen, Denmark

Piotr Michałowski, Self-portrait, 1840,

National Museum in Warsaw
  

Gustave Courbet, Portrait of Charles

Baudelaire, 1848

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Alfred

Sisley, 1868
  

James Abbott McNeill Whistler,

Arrangement in Grey and Black: The
Artist's Mother (1871) popularly known
as Whistler's Mother
  

Mary Cassatt, Portrait of Madame Sisley

1873

Edgar Degas, Portrait of Miss Cassatt,

Seated, Holding Cards, 1876-1878
  

John Peter Russell, Vincent van Gogh,

1886

Ilya Repin, Portrait of Leo Tolstoy, 1887

  

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Robert

Louis Stevenson, 1887

Paul Gauguin, The Painter of Sunflowers,

Portrait of Vincent van Gogh, 1888
  

Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Doctor

Gachet, (first version), 1890

Cecilia Beaux, Sita and Sarita (Jeune Fille

au Chat), 1893–1894
  

Mikhail Vrubel, The Swan Princess

(Portrait of Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel),
1900

Henri Matisse, The Green Stripe, Portrait

of Madame Matisse, 1905
  

Olga Boznańska, Self-portrait, 1906,

National Museum in Warsaw

Umberto Boccioni, Self-portrait, 1906

  

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-

Bauer I, 1907

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Daniel-Henry

Kahnweiler, 1910, The Art Institute of
Chicago
  

Juan Gris, Portrait of Pablo Picasso, 1912

Jean Metzinger, Femme au miroir, 1916

(detail)
  

Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of Chaim

Soutine, 1916

Boris Grigoriev, Portrait of Vsevolod

Meyerhold, 1916
  

Boris Kustodiev, Kapitsa and Semyonov,

1921

Michal Ožibko, Girl with… (portrait of

Frederike Höppner), 2007
  

Karel Balcar, bunny (2017)

See also
Hierarchy of genres
The Portrait Now

References and notes

References
1. Gordon C. Aymar, The Art of Portrait
Painting, Chilton Book Co., Philadelphia,
1967, p. 119
2. Aymar, p. 94
3. Aymar, p. 129
4. Aymar, p. 93
5. Edwards, Betty (2012). Drawing on the
Right Side of the Brain . Penguin. p. 292.
ISBN 978-1-101-56180-5.
6. Aymar, p. 283
7. Aymar, p. 235
8. Aymar, p. 280
9. Aymar, p. 51
10. Aymar, p. 72
11. Robin Simon, The Portrait in Britain
and America, G. K. Hall & Co., Boston,
1987, p. 131, ISBN 0-8161-8795-9
12. Simon, p. 129
13. Simon, p. 131
14. Aymar, p. 262
15. Simon, p. 98
16. Simon, p. 107
17. Aymar, p. 268, 271, 278
18. Aymar, p. 264
19. Aymar, p. 265
20. Aymar, p. 5
21. Cheney, Faxon, and Russo, Self-
Portraits by Women Painters, Ashgate
Publishing, Hants (England), 2000, p. 7,
ISBN 1-85928-424-8
22. John Hope-Hennessy, The Portrait in
the Renaissance, Bollingen Foundation,
New York, 1966, pp. 71-72
23. Natural History XXXV:2 trans H.
Rackham 1952. Loeb Classical Library
24. Cheney, Faxon, and Russo, p. 20
25. David Piper, The Illustrated Library of
Art, Portland House, New York, 1986, p.
297, ISBN 0-517-62336-6
26. Piper, p. 337
27. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 209
28. Simon, p. 80
29. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 54, 63
30. Piper, p. 301
31. Piper, p. 363
32. Aymar, p. 29
33. Piper, p. 365
34. Bonafoux, p. 35
35. John Hope-Hennessy, pp. 124-126
36. Piper, p. 318
37. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 20
38. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 227
39. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 212
40. "Mona Lisa – Heidelberger Fund klärt
Identität (English: Mona Lisa –
Heidelberger find clarifies identity)" (in
German). University of Heidelberg.
Archived from the original on 2008-12-
06. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
41. "German experts crack the ID of 'Mona
Lisa' " . MSN. 2008-01-14. Archived from
the original on 2008-01-16. Retrieved
2008-08-29.
42. "Researchers Identify Model for Mona
Lisa" . The New York Times. Retrieved
2008-08-29.
43. John Hope-Hennessy, pp. 103-4
44. Piper, p. 338
45. Piper, p. 345
46. Pascal Bonafoux, Portraits of the
Artist: The Self-Portrait in Painting,
Skira/Rizzoli, New York, 1985, p. 31,
ISBN 0-8478-0586-7
47. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 52
48. Piper, p. 330
49. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 279
50. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 182
51. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 154
52. John Hope-Hennessy, p. 187
53. Bonafoux, p. 40
54. Piper, pp. 408-410
55. Simon, p. 109
56. Aymar, p. 162
57. Aymar, p. 161
58. Piper, p. 421
59. Aymar, p. 218
60. Piper, p. 424
61. Bonafoux, p. 62
62. Piper, p. 418
63. Piper, p. 460
64. Simon, p. 13, 97
65. Simon, p. 97
66. Aymar, p. 62
67. Simon, p. 92
68. Simon, p. 19
69. Aymar, p. 204
70. Aymar, p. 263
71. Aymar, p. 149
72. Bonafoux, p. 99
73. Piper, p. 542
74. Bonafoux, p. 111
75. Piper, p. 585
76. Piper, p. 568
77. Aymar, p. 88
78. Piper, p. 589
79. Piper, p. 561
80. Aymar, p. 299
81. Piper, p. 576
82. Piper, p. 552
83. Simon, p. 49
84. "Portrait of Gertrude Stein" .
Metropolitan Museum. Retrieved
26 August 2010.
85. Piper, p. 582
86. Aymar, p. 54
87. Aymar, p. 188
88. Piper, p. 646
89. Bonafoux, p. 45
90. Sergei V. Ivanov. Unknown Socialist
Realism. The Leningrad School. - Saint
Petersburg: NP-Print Edition, 2007. – 448
p. ISBN 5-901724-21-6, ISBN 978-5-
901724-21-7.
91. ’’An American Vision: Three
Generations of Wyeth Art, Boston, 1987,
Little Brown & Company, p. 123, ISBN 0-
8212-1652-X
92. "Freud work sets new world record" .
BBC News Online. 14 May 2008. Retrieved
2008-08-29.
93. "Andy Warhol Portraits That Changed
The World Forever" . Widewalls. Retrieved
2018-03-27.
94. "Andy Warhol. Marilyn Monroe. 1967 |
MoMA" . The Museum of Modern Art.
Retrieved 2018-03-27.
95. AnOther (2011-06-15). "Warhol and
the Diva" . AnOther. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
96. "The Andy Warhol Foundation for the
Visual Arts - Andy Warhol Biography" .
warholfoundation.org. Retrieved
2018-03-27.
97. Families in beeld - Frauke K.
Laarmann, Families in beeld: De
ontwikkeling van het Noord-Nederlandse
familieportret in de eerste helft van de
zeventiende eeuw. Hilversum, 2002,
Verloren, ISBN 978-90-6550-186-8
Retrieved December 25, 2010
Notes
The New Age "Art Notes" column of 28
February 1918 is a closely reasoned
 analysis of the rationale and aesthetic
of portraiture by B.H. Dias (pseudonym
of Ezra Pound), an insightful frame of
reference for viewing any portrait,
ancient or modern.

Further reading
Woodall, Joanna. Portraiture: Facing
the Subject. Manchester University
Press, Manchester, 1997.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Portrait paintings.

Joanna Woodall lecturing on Trading

Identities, the image of the merchant at
 Gresham College.

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