Portrait Painting Archive
Among the different types of paintings, Portrait Paintings are comprehensive ways to capture a man’s glory, disposition or social stance in one single moment. It is a style which quickly captures the viewer’s attention and gives a quick glimpse in the past of the depicted person or group. Portrait paintings stand strong among the other types of paintings.
Definition of Portrait
According to Oxford Dictionary, “A painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders.”
Though, the last words of the definition aren’t the mandatory properties of a portrait as the type has grown into much more complex and various ways of depicting a person.
Comprehensive Depiction
Portraits could represent a person, an artist or a group of people. They are just the simple depictions of people. Still, they aren’t just profiles of the persons. Sometimes, portraits could tell us more history about the contemporary times than a city’s landscape from the same era.
For instance, during the Dutch Golden age, people were afraid of expressing their pride through an extravagant portrait as it was considered bad during the time. Thus, the total of more than 1 million portraits from that time were mostly dull, expressionless and similar. You won’t get this information in the brilliant vista of a cityscape.
Even the most famous painting in the world is also a portrait. Other famous paintings like Girl with a Pearl Earring and American Gothic are also different types of portrait as you would know about them in detail at here.
Artists would generally have very limited space to include any significant object in the portrait as compared to a Landscape Painting or a Still Life Painting where he can add all the objects he could imagine. Thus, the included objects, scenes, background or other elements would be chosen very carefully to represent the accurate impression of the person or persons portrayed. Artist would care of the littlest details to represent the disposition or the concurrent impression of the person and would eliminate any redundant objects or implications. It is somewhat similar to still-life in which every included element generally holds some meaningful symbolism.
Thus, portraits could embody the person’s disposition, general impression, importance, significance, background, stance in society, history, a specific phase or the whole society’s outlook through a single representative person.
Types of Portraits
According to the subject, context or need of the artist, portrait paintings have developed many types to distinguish or signify different characteristics. Each type has been developed over the different centuries or ages and have matured in today’s portraits. This, findings and techniques of portrait paintings have significantly helped the portrait photography in modern times. You can find a mode called “portrait” in your phone’s camera. The term is derived from here, obviously.
If you haven’t read our post on the Different Types of Portraits, you can read about it on the given link.
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“Portrait of a Boy” carries the weight of character more than anything else. Besides, the choice of medium by Swynnerton is simply breathtaking. If I were to imagine someone painting a subject like this, watercolor, pastel and ink would be the safest guesses. However, Swynnerton’s subject is all about strength of character. She loved immortalizing young boys, for whom she might have been unable to recollect identities. It is clear that the little boy’s posture is impressive, and there is all the innocence in his good-natured face, which also carries an element of disciplining history. Swynnerton belonged in the times of conservative ideologies, conflicting with leftist ideals of feminism, socialism and equal pay for women. It was a noble thing to be on that side, […]
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Boy, British, English, Little Boy
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The sense of light can be a very special feeling, especially when you have remained indoors, or gained vision by some miracle after blindness. The presence of a miracle is quite obvious in Annie Swynnerton’s painting here in oil-on-canvas, deliberately portrayed through the wings of the angelic woman. However, this has more to do with the woman being an angelic being, rather than just anyone receiving a miraculous decree. The hopeful look into the sky is so unblemished, that she hopes it will culminate into complete euphoria pretty soon. Swynnerton is a woman of courage – something one can find in her paintings. Although she was a major contributor in feminism in the early 1900s, her admiration for miracles, characters, principled people, uniqueness and innocence […]
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Angel, Angelic, Lady with Wings, River, Wings, Woman
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One of the most important historical portraits of George Washington, Lansdowne portrait depicts the first president of America with a humble appearance. He is standing in a room with a dress sword in a hand while other hand raised in front. Behind him is a chair and on the right side is a table, carrying an ink-spot with books, rolled paper, table cloth and white quill. The full length portrait of the America’s is a valuable painting which has survived man bad days including the War of 1812. During the war, the British soldiers had conquered the white house in which the large portrait was hung. The soldiers ate and then infamously burned down the whole white house. Luckily enough, the portrait was saved by […]
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American President, Full Length Portrait, George Washington, Ink Pot, Sword
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This is an ambivalent painting of cubist artist Pablo Picasso by the surrealist master Salvador Dali produced in the year of 1947. Portrait of Picasso Analysis The surrealist portrait painting of Pablo Picasso by Salvador Dali is infused with symbolic messages and meanings as Dali’s most famous works are. Basically, instead of a direct face, it is a portrait of Picasso’s bust sculpture. The base of the bust is made out of the regular white stone out of which most bust-sculptures are made of. But, the upper part is covered with skin. There is a white flower in the distorted chest of the bust, while a red one, is laying at the feet of the bust. The head is much more distorted than the chest […]
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Bust Portrait, Famous, Head and Shoulders Portrait, Lute, Profile Portrait, Rock, Spoon, Surrealist
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Andrew Wyeth is a reputable American painter who received National Medal of Arts in 2007 by the president Barack Obama himself. Christina’s World Analysis This realistic and simple painting is Titled Christina’s world. The title is very meaningful comprising the whole way and state of life of the posing model. Apparently, the model was named Anna Christina Olson. She is depicted in the yellowish grassland with a house with other farm-related buildings at the back. The appealing aspect is that Christina was a patient of Polio, which has snatched away her ability to walk. One day, when she was enjoying the meadow and was crawling over it, painter Andrew Wyeth saw her from the window and decided to depict. Eloquent Title He decided the title […]
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Anna Christina Oslon, Famous, Farm, Full Length Portrait, Grass, House, Illness, Lady, Meadow, Polio
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Pinkie is simple, formal portraiture from 1794 of a little 12 years old girl named Sarah Barrett Moulton. It represents her full length portrait in the background of an open landscape. She stands gracefully gazing direct into the viewers’ eyes. Apart from its beautiful depiction, Pinkie is also known for its association with another painting The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough. Pinkie Analysis It is a full length portrait representing the girl in a casual stance. The background is an open landscape. The name pinkie is given derived from her pink dress. Painter has put her in the scene in a way which makes her posture grand. The placement of the horizon at very low level and the big sky covering the girl’s body is […]
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Beautiful Girl, Full Face View Portrait, Full Length Portrait, Girl, Ribbon Hat, Sky, Woman
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The Blue Boy is a painting by the English painter Thomas Gainsborough who was an expert in portraits and landscapes. The painting is suggested to be mainly a costume study, as it includes a very detailed depiction of boy’s clothing. The Blue Boy Analysis Boy is standing in the popular style of contrapposto used from the time of renaissance. He seems determined and confident in his stance. His one hand holds a plumed hat popular in 18th century while the on the other hand kept on the waist hangs a cape-like clothe. He is clothed in shiny, silky clothing. In the background is a big mountain slope with trees. Similarly dark sky seems surrounds the boy’s body in the romanticism style. Artist’s expertise at the landscape […]
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Aristocrat, Boy, Cape, Contrapposto, Full Face View Portrait, Full Length Portrait, Masculine, Plumed Hat, Stockings
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