Portraiture
Great portraiture is one of art’s many surprises. Portraits, of course, have long been considered historical documents of what the sitter looked like but EPPH suspects, despite most opinion over the centuries claiming otherwise, that an accurate likeness was rarely the primary goal of a great portraitist. And while a painter-poet (our definition of an artist who paints) can depict a sitter as his or her own alter ego in many different ways (see THEMES) , one of the most common and intriguing, it seems to me, is the fusion of the artist's own facial features with the sitter's. The evidence available is fairly abundant and far exceeds the content of this site to-date. First of all, we are not alone. Other art historians have noticed the phenomenon too (see below). The most compelling example is the portrait series of British monarchs from Holbein's Henry VIII to Lucian Freud's Elizabeth II. You can judge for yourself in the gallery of English sovreigns and other famous Brits. There are similar selections on Italian, Spanish, French and American portraiture as well. The series of early American presidents is another eye-opener.
All Articles (Alphabetical by Artist, then Title)
Find out how this portrait by Holbein represents the artist even if he had not also used face fusion
Holbein’s Jakob Meyer zum Hasen (1516)
Why would a great master when copying a portrait by an earlier master change the features of the portrait sitter?
Ingres’ Copy of Holbein’s Henry VIII
How Ingres became Napoleon and the Emperor became an artist
Ingres’ Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne (1806)
How an artist, the artist's lover, is Ingres' own androgynous reflection
Ingres’ The Forestier Family (1806)
See how artists play with our historical memory and immortalize their own
Isaac Oliver’s Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (c.1600)
Everyone agrees that Frida Kahlo painted herself.....but within which tradition? Psychological and surrealist or esoteric?
Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Portrait of Dr. Farill (1951)
If a hand is missing, can it still represent the artist's craft?
Kirchner’s Self-Portrait as Soldier (1915)
Find out how every painter paints herself as well
Labille-Guiard’s Portrait of Madame Adélaïde (1787)
How Rivers invented (or perhaps just copied) another way an artist can symbolize the act of painting
Larry Rivers’ A Vanished World: Gilbert and Garbo 1 (1994)
See how the patron became the artist and Lavinia became Laudomia
Lavinia Fontana’s Gozzadini Family (1584)
The most crucial piece of information about the Mona Lisa missing from standard textbooks is that the proportions of the Mona Lisa’s face differ from an earlier version seen in X-rays but are similar to the artist’s own in a well-known self-portrait.
Leonardo’s Mona Lisa (c. 1503-7)
How historical accuracy was not Leonardo's purpose in a portrait
Leonardo’s Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci (c.1474-8)
How painters can imagine themselves as violinists and other musical performers
Leyster’s Self-portrait at the Easel (c.1630)
Find out how a realistic portrait is something else entirely
Lotto’s Portrait of Andrea Odoni (1527)
See how even a contemporary artist follows the hidden tradition of the great masters
Lucian Freud’s Queen Elizabeth II, Part 1
Artists do not have to use their own features in a portrait of someone else. There are other ways of identifying with the sitter as Manet demonstrates in this portrait.
Manet’s Boy with Cherries (1860)
Find out how the viewer in this garden scene is really inside Manet's mind
Manet’s Monet Family in the Garden (1874)
Don't forget to imagine what can't be seen: the artist's viewpoint
Manet’s Music in the Tuileries (1862)
Learn how one artist shows their identification with another
Manet’s Self-Portrait with a Skull-Cap (1878-9)
This magical composition hides a complex thought of seeming effortless construction: a masterpiece of the first order
Manet’s Tragic Actor (1865-6) Part 1
Durer's 1500 self-portrait as Christ is considered most unusual. He was not alone.
Mantegna’s Ecce Homo (c.1500)
Why did Picasso choose this painting for himself? What did he see in it?
Matisse’s Marguerite (1906-7)
See how Matisse's identification with an earlier artist is conveyed in a businessman's portrait
Matisse’s Portrait of Auguste Pellerin II (1917)
See how Matisse himself appears in even a simple drawing of an unidentified model
Matisse’s Seated Young Woman in a Patterned Dress (1939)
To see what's in a painting can take a very long time... 15 years, in this case.
Matisse’s The Green Line (1905)
See how even in the fifteenth century the artist's craft and intellect were one and how, once again, forms matter
Memling’s Portrait of a Young Man (c.1475-80)
If a self-portrait was collected by Picasso as this one was, there must be a reason beyond remembrance. It's our job to find out what.
Miró‘s Self-portrait (1919)
Is landscape portraiture? Monet clearly thinks so.
Monet’s Camille Monet in the Garden at Argenteuil (1876)
More evidence that an illusionistic portrait is not necessarily a depiction of what we normally see
Parmigianino’s Man with a Book (1523-4) with works by Titian and Michelangelo too
Indian art though always separated from Western art, in both museums and scholarship, may have more in common with it than ever thought before.
Payag’s Shah Jahan Riding a Stallion (c.1628)
Peale's American portraits have more in common with great European art than is generally accepted.
Peale’s Portrait of George Washington (c.1780)
When you discover what is underneath Picasso's early Blue Period paintings, the meaning changes...drastically.
Picasso’s Harlequin (1901) and Blue Period
Learn how the young Picasso played around with several themes in a relatively simple composition
Picasso’s La Toilette (1906)
See how Picasso in "copying" a portrait changes it into an image of his own thought process
Picasso’s Portrait of Gongora (1947)
Not a particularly successful picture but an excellent learning tool
Picasso’s Portrait of Jacqueline (1965)
Picasso must have learnt early on that great artists often adopt the persona of earlier great artists....
Picasso’s Self-Portrait (late1901)
Even the Grand Tour's principal portraitist, Pompeo Batoni, used face fusion
Pompeo Batoni’s Portrait of a Gentleman in a red coat (c.1758-9)
New revelations, as always, about one of the world's most famous portraits
Raphael’s La Donna Velata (c.1516)
Beware of biographical stories trying to explain a great portrait; they are rarely, if ever, true.
Raphael’s La Fornarina (1518-20)
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