From the earliest recorded times we have portraits. And while you may consider they are a difficult theme, a portrait is essentially about observation and noting the most important and striking features on a face and putting them down on paper, canvas or wood. It is taken to its extreme in the caricature.
You don't have to do portraits with great detail - as you will see with some of the modern portraits included here - but our greatest portrait artists usually did. More was best.
Why do we want portraits? It is enduring. It lives longer (usually) than the person themselves. In times past, it might have been to honor a figurehead, to remember a loved one, and in the case of commissioning one's one portrait the desire to show ones self in the best light. To be remembered. To be envied. To be ... loved? It's not much different today, especially for the younger generation whose obsession with cellphone selfies has taken portraiture to new heights (and sunken to even more vain depths!).
We suggest a challenge to send in a portrait to us.
It can be a portrait of a friend or family member, a self portrait or even an invented portrait. And you can do this is whatever medium you favour. We have a few treats already in store by FHAS members done in pencil - but don't stop there. Pick up a hat, position yourself in front of the mirror (or take a selfie) and bring us your best efforts by 05 JUNE 2021.
Below you'll see an arbitrary selection of portraits done over the last 2000 years (OK! Most of them belong to the quorum of artistic work over the last 150 years!) and it becomes obvious that as the decades pass, there is a loosening up of technique but never a diminishing of observation.
Enjoy the selection, and then get down to doing a portrait for this challenge!
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Roman Emperor - he could almost be that bearded man that passed you in the street yesterday. A likeness from over 200 years ago. |
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| Legacy from Pompeii |
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The man who brought us exciting portraiture, Rembrandt. He was the first artist to use light sources in an interesting even mysterious way. |
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A refined portrait by Titian, master of painting fur and exotic brocades - and rather good at faces too! |
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Another Rembrandt. Note the angle of the face: it's a winner. Rare are the successful portraits straight forward |
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| What was going through Rembrandt's head in this pencil portrait of himself? |
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One of the greatest portraitists: John Singer Sergent. He was the favourite of the upper classes and certainly gave them magnificent portraits. |
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The juxtaposition of these two portraits by Picasso are not meant to be the same woman. But just look at how the master skipped from realism to modern art.Yes, it is a little difficult to identify the sitter but... perhaps he/she recognized him/herself! |
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| Another Picasso |
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And yet another. |
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| Modigliani went for elongated simplicity and warm colours here, forging his own unique style |
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One of the best loved likenesses of Vincent Van Gogh.Who, but a great artist, would have thought of painting a beard so red! He brought feeling to painting. |
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As his life progressed (and his painting was curtailed by his immobility towards the end of his life) Matisse moved towards a greater simplification |
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... And it doesn't get more simple. Matisse is still recognizable! |
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It might take all of 30 seconds to trace this simple portrait, but it probably took Matisse much longer to draw it. |
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The first camera portraits were of people standing or sitting rigidly, usually front forward for they had to hold their pose a while for the cameraman. This Grant Wood portrait harks back to that kind of photography where the subject was a little wary! |
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Andy Warhol remembers John Lennon - a mixture of photography and paint |
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Not one for prettifying his sitters (or himself in this case) Lucien Freudgets down to the basics with lots of shadows |
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| I couldn't find out how Her Majesty reacted to this Freud portrait... |
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Utter simplicity of line and block colour |
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A rather tasteful 'portrait' of the ex President |
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Back on home ground: the art of caricature as perfected by Zapiro. |
