Portrait painting is a genre in painting. The intent of the portrait is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Historically portrait painting has memorized the rich and powerful, but over time also middle class patrons commissioned portraits of themselves or their family. Traditionally the portrait was painted, but today portraits are done in the new media such as video and digital.
A portrait is considered well done if it depicts not only the outer appearance of the subject, more or less idealized, but also the subject's inner character and/or social status. Of course such is open to the artist's interpretation. This was the ideal as early as Aristotle, who defined art as representing "not the outward appearance of things, but their inner significance" and Aristotle added that this was what "constitutes true reality". However, this does not help us understand how art differs from caricature. Of course caricature depicts the subjects inner life by exaggerating the outer features, while art attempts to depict the inner while adhering strictly to the outer appearance. It is difficult to place modern art forms, such as a cubist portrait, within this simple dichotomy.
But in general, and historically, the portrait has been satisfied to represent the subject's outer appearance. This resulted in an overproduction of formal and stiff portraits. As Charles Dickens started: "There are only two styles in portrait painting: the serious and the smirk." Smiles look ridiculous in portraits because they are frozen in time, so a smirk was the closest one could come to a smile. Portraits have thus been rather stiff and the most common means of expression was the eyebrows. The result is that portraits always have closed mouths and open eyes, if not a stiff stare. The contemporary Danish master, Jan Esmann, did something new when he created a series of hyper-realist portraits with closed eyes and open mouths (see link below).
It usually requires several sittings to create a portrait and it takes considerable time. The need of the models physical presence has today been cut down or eliminated by the use of photos as a source. Cezanne was extreme and required up to 100 sittings, but the average number required is about four. Traditionally the artist would make several drawings and present the model with them so the model could select the most desirable. Sometimes the artist would finish the portrait from such a drawing without requiring further sittings.
Since the model was required to sit still repeatedly for several hours, it was considered part of the portrait painters craft to be able to keep up conversation while painting. Occasionally a sitter is not satisfied with the result. The artist is then obliged to retouch it or withdraw from the commission unpaid. The latter of course would incur humiliation. Some very famous artists have suffered the humiliation of rejection; Jaques-Louis David, for example, had his portrait of Madame Rcamier rejected. It was, however, widely celebrated at exhibitions.
A portrait is considered well done if it depicts not only the outer appearance of the subject, more or less idealized, but also the subject's inner character and/or social status. Of course such is open to the artist's interpretation. This was the ideal as early as Aristotle, who defined art as representing "not the outward appearance of things, but their inner significance" and Aristotle added that this was what "constitutes true reality". However, this does not help us understand how art differs from caricature. Of course caricature depicts the subjects inner life by exaggerating the outer features, while art attempts to depict the inner while adhering strictly to the outer appearance. It is difficult to place modern art forms, such as a cubist portrait, within this simple dichotomy.
But in general, and historically, the portrait has been satisfied to represent the subject's outer appearance. This resulted in an overproduction of formal and stiff portraits. As Charles Dickens started: "There are only two styles in portrait painting: the serious and the smirk." Smiles look ridiculous in portraits because they are frozen in time, so a smirk was the closest one could come to a smile. Portraits have thus been rather stiff and the most common means of expression was the eyebrows. The result is that portraits always have closed mouths and open eyes, if not a stiff stare. The contemporary Danish master, Jan Esmann, did something new when he created a series of hyper-realist portraits with closed eyes and open mouths (see link below).
It usually requires several sittings to create a portrait and it takes considerable time. The need of the models physical presence has today been cut down or eliminated by the use of photos as a source. Cezanne was extreme and required up to 100 sittings, but the average number required is about four. Traditionally the artist would make several drawings and present the model with them so the model could select the most desirable. Sometimes the artist would finish the portrait from such a drawing without requiring further sittings.
Since the model was required to sit still repeatedly for several hours, it was considered part of the portrait painters craft to be able to keep up conversation while painting. Occasionally a sitter is not satisfied with the result. The artist is then obliged to retouch it or withdraw from the commission unpaid. The latter of course would incur humiliation. Some very famous artists have suffered the humiliation of rejection; Jaques-Louis David, for example, had his portrait of Madame Rcamier rejected. It was, however, widely celebrated at exhibitions.
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