Portraiture - the art of drawing and painting people
This site is about portrait painting and drawing. Do you want to learn how to draw or paint people? Or maybe you want to know more about portrait societies or portrait competitions; portrait artists or portrait exhibitions; portraits in museums or portraits online? This site provides links to a wide variety of information and advice about portraits, portraiture and how to draw and paint people
This site is limited to portraiture in the visual arts - and initially will focus on drawing and painting. It's a work in progress and new links are being added on a regular basis
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This site is limited to portraiture in the visual arts - and initially will focus on drawing and painting. It's a work in progress and new links are being added on a regular basis
If you like this site please rate it and feel free to add a link to it on your website. You can also create a bookmark or link within various social network sites and/or e-mail this site to a friend who may find it interesting - see the right hand column
You can find out about...........
click a link to go straight to that topic
- What is portraiture?
- Important Portraits in National Galleries, Collections & Exhibitions
- Notable Portrait Artists
- Portrait Competitions
- Self Portraiture
- Learning about Portraiture
- Making A Mark on drawing and sketching people
- BOOKS: How to paint a portrait
- Portraiture Online
- Portraits Online
- Articles about Portraiture
- Comments and Suggestions
What is portraiture?
What is a portrait?
A portrait is work of art that represents a specific person, a group of people, or an animal.
A portrait can be a drawing, painting, photograph, sculpture, or any other artistic representation of a person, in which the likeness and the personality of the subject tend to be dominate.
A portrait can often portray something about a person's life, context or status. It's usually composed rather than something which has been created in an 'ad hoc' way - such as a snapshot.
There are various approaches to developing a portrait.
Portraiture is the field of portrait making and portraits in general.
A portrait artist is somebody who is known to specialise in making portraits.
"Portrait" is a term that may also refer simply to a vertically oriented rectangle, just as a horizontally oriented one may be said to be oriented the landscape way.
A portrait can be a drawing, painting, photograph, sculpture, or any other artistic representation of a person, in which the likeness and the personality of the subject tend to be dominate.
A portrait can often portray something about a person's life, context or status. It's usually composed rather than something which has been created in an 'ad hoc' way - such as a snapshot.
There are various approaches to developing a portrait.
- Portraits usually show what a person looks like - but they don't have to be an accurate likeness.
- Some say something allegorical about the subject's life.
- Some would suggest that a more successful portrait also reveals something about the subject's personality.
Portraiture is the field of portrait making and portraits in general.
A portrait artist is somebody who is known to specialise in making portraits.
"Portrait" is a term that may also refer simply to a vertically oriented rectangle, just as a horizontally oriented one may be said to be oriented the landscape way.
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
Some famous portraits
A small selection of famous portraits
- Mona Lisa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo Da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. The work is owned by the French government and hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France with the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.[1]
The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose expression is often described as enigmatic.[2][3] The ambiguity of the sitter's expression, the monumentality of the half-figure composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the painting's continuing fascination.[1] Few other works of art have been subject to as much scrutiny, study, mythologizing and parody.[4] - Arnolfini Portrait - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Arnolfini Portrait is a painting in oils on oak panel executed by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck in 1434. Among other titles, it is also known as "The Arnolfini Wedding", "The Arnolfini Marriage", "The Arnolfini Double Portrait" or the "Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife".
This painting is believed to be a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife in a room, presumably in their home in the Flemish city of Bruges. It is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art history. Being both signed and dated by Van Eyck in 1434, it is...the oldest very famous panel painting to have been executed in oils rather than in tempera. The painting was bought by the National Gallery in London in 1842.
The illusionism of the painting was remarkable for its time, in part for the rendering of detail, but particularly for the use of light to evoke space in an interior, for "its utterly convincing depiction of a room, as well of the people who inhabit it". - Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)[1] , also often known as Portrait of a Man in a Turban, or in a red turban, etc, is an oil painting by the Early Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck, from 1433. It has been in the National Gallery, London since 1851
- Rembrandt self-portraits - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- At one time about ninety paintings were counted as Rembrandt self-portraits, but it is now known that he had his students copy his own self-portraits as part of their training. Modern scholarship has reduced the autograph count to over forty paintings, as well as a few drawings and thirty-one etchings, which include many of the most remarkable images of the group.[27] Many show him posing in quasi-historical fancy dress, or pulling faces at himself. His oil paintings trace the progress from an uncertain young man, through the dapper and very successful portrait-painter of the 1630s, to the troubled but massively powerful portraits of his old age. Together they give a remarkably clear picture of the man, his appearance and his psychological make-up, as revealed by his richly-weathered face.[28]
- Duane Keiser - On Painting: On "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez
- Duane Keiser comments on his visit to see Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Plus links to several useful image references
- Albrecht Durer - Self-Portrait - 1498 (Prado Museum, Madrid)
- Oil on Wooden Panel
Measures 52 cm x 41cm
Portrait of a Man by Jan van Eyck
Portraiture on wikipedia
- Portrait - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer.
- Portrait painting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject, most often a person. A well executed portrait is expected to show the inner essence of the subject (from the artist's point of view, of course) not just a physical likeness.
The term 'portrait painting' can also describe a painted portrait. Portraitists create their portraits by commission or are inspired by admiration or affection for the subject. If an artist portrayes him- or herself, the result is called a self-portrait.
Portraits can depict the subject 'full body', 'half length' or 'head and shoulders'. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait. - Self-portrait - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- A Self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, or sculpted by the artist.
A self-portrait may be a portrait of the artist, or a portrait included in a larger work, including a group portrait. Many painters are said to have included depictions of specific individuals, including themselves, in painting figures in religious or other types of composition not intended to depict the actual persons as themselves. Often these are just faces in a crowd, often at the corner of the work, but a particular hybrid genre developed where historical scenes were depicted using a number of actual persons as models, often including the artist, giving the work a double function as portrait and history painting. Rubens and Rembrandt painted such scenes[3]This culminated in the seventeenth century with the work of Jan de Bray, and has been revived in recent years in photography by Cindy Sherman. Many artistic media have been used; apart from paintings, drawings and prints have been especially important.
Sometimes artists place their own image into group portraits, such as (probably) Jan van Eyck in the Arnolfini Portrait, who inspired Diego Velázquez in Las Meninas.[4] Later group portraits of family, friends or professional groups became common. - The Portrait Now - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Portrait Now was a major international overview of contemporary portraiture held in 1993-1994 at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Among many others it included portraits by Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Stephen Finer, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Jeff Koons, Leon Kossoff, Alice Neel, Julian Schnabel and Andy Warhol.
- Caricature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- A caricature is either a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness, or in literature, a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.[1]
Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment.
Important Portraits in National Galleries, Collections & Exhibitions
National Portrait Galleries
- National Portrait Gallery, London
- The National Portrait Gallery, London was established with the criteria, still in use today, that the Gallery was to be about history, not about art, and about the status of the sitter, rather than the quality or character of a particular image considered as a work of art.
Originally, it was decided by the Trustees that "No portrait of any person still living, or deceased less that 10 years, shall be admitted by purchase, donation, or bequest, except only in the case of the reigning Sovereign, and of his or her Consort". This rule changed in 1969 in order to encourage a policy of admitting living sitters.
For the first 40 years the Gallery had no home before opening to the public in 1859. Its present home was opened in 1896 and was immediately too small for the collection. It has been subsequently extended. - The National Portrait Gallery, Washington
- The National Portrait Gallery is dedicated to the exhibition and study of portraits of people who have made significant contribution to American history and culture and to the study of the artists who created such portraiture.
- National Portrait Gallery - Australia
- The National Portrait Gallery is in Canberra.
Begun in May 1998, the collection is growing rapidly. The majority of works in the collection have been gifts thanks to the generosity of donors. The Gallery is creating a collection of portraits of the highest quality regardless of media. Two principles guide the selection of portraits for the collection:
* the subject must be either important in his or her field of endeavour or a known and named person whose life sets them apart as an individual of long-term public interest; and
* the subject must be Australian, either by birth or association. - National Galleries of Scotland - Scottish National Portrait Gallery
- The Scottish National Portrait Gallery provides a unique visual history of Scotland, told through the portraits of those who shaped it. It explores the lives of great Scots, past and present, who have inspired and changed the world - royals and rebels, poets and philosophers, heroes and villains.
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery was the first purpose-built portrait gallery in the world.
Portrait Collections
- National Portrait Gallery | Search the collection
- The National Portrait Gallery Collections include 106,228 portraits. Some 56,098 of the portraits which are digitally indexed for search purposes are illustrated.
- National Galleries of Scotland - National Portrait Collection
- National Portrait Gallery - Collection highlights
- National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian) | Collections on View
- Collections on Permanent View
- Smithsonian - National Portrait Gallery - Hall of Presidents
- National Portrait Gallery, Hall of Presidents
Important Portrait Exhibitions
- National Gallery London - Velazquez Exhibition
- This is the first major exhibition in Britain to trace the career of Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez, one of the world's greatest painters.
- National Gallery London - Velazquez - Painter of Kings, King of Painters
- 'Velazquez: Painter of Kings, King of Painters'. This special online feature is designed to accompany the 'Velazquez' exhibition at the National Gallery and traces the artist's evolution, from his apprenticeship in Seville to court painter in Madrid.
- National Gallery London - Velazquez - Paintings from the Exhibition
- Slideshow of Paintings from the Velazquez Exhibition at the National Gallery, London
- National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | David Hockney Portraits
- David Hockney Portraits
12 October 2006 - 21 January 2007
Wolfson and Ground Floor Galleries
Exhibition organised with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. - Celebrating The American Wing: American Portraits | Explore & Learn | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Portraits record likenesses, commemorate events, and celebrate human traits. Some include elaborate poses, attributes, and settings, while others are comparatively stark. In this way, each portrait represents a negotiation between the sitter and the artist. By the mid-eighteenth century, portraiture was firmly fixed as the predominant art form in the American colonies. It remained popular and desirable, especially among the country's elite, throughout the nineteenth century.
Explore American portraiture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Included are selected portraits from the collection, presented with related works and illuminating information. - The Museum Network - Portraits & Portraiture: Home
- Using five museum collections, teachers and pupils can find out more about the fascinating subject of portraiture, including how portraits were created, how to strike a commanding pose, how to tell someone's status from their dress and the formal elements that go into making someone's likeness.
- Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres | Explore & Learn | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Archived exhibition
"Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch" was a major international loan exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum from October 5, 1999, through January 2, 2000. It was the largest exhibition of portraits by the French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ever presented outside France. The forty paintings and ninety-two drawings on view offered a virtual Who's Who of the ruling elite in France-the aristocracy of birth, beauty, politics, wealth, and intellect. This feature presents sixteen portraits by Ingres, together with illuminating details of each portrait and related works from the exhibition and the Metropolitan's permanent collection. - The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions: Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s
- Archived exhibition
Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s
November 14, 2006-February 19, 2007
The exhibition features gripping portraits by ten renowned artists: Max Beckmann, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Karl Hubbuch, Ludwig Meidner, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz, and Gert H. Wollheim. - MoMA.org | Exhibitions | 1996 | Picasso and Portraiture
- This first comprehensive survey of the portrait work of Pablo Picasso featured more than 130 paintings and 100 drawings and prints. The exhibition was organized by William Rubin, Director Emeritus, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, in collaboration with the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris.
- National Portrait Gallery - Self-Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary 2005-6
- National Portrait Gallery
Self-Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary
PAST EXHIBITION ARCHIVE SELF PORTRAIT:
Renaissance to Contemporary 20 October 2005 - 29 January 2006 - The Society of Portrait Sculptors - Annual Open Exhibition
- The Society of Portrait Sculptors, a representative body of professional sculptors committed to making portrait sculpture accessible to a wider public.
The Open Exhibition is the only forum for contemporary portrait sculpture and consists of about 70 sculptures of which approximately one third are chosen from open submission from non-members. It is held each year in May or June at The Gallery in Cork Street, London and FACE2009 will be held 11-16 May 2009. All works are subject to selection and are judged on the actual sculpture - no submissions by photograph are allowed. - Van Eyck to Bruegel | Explore & Learn | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Netherlandish portraiture spans the sacred and secular worlds. Donor portraits appear in altarpieces and are essential parts of devotional diptychs and triptychs........There also existed a strong tradition for independent portraiture, reflecting a society that became increasingly secularized in the sixteenth century.
The expressive character of each work depended to a great degree on its intended context, as well as on the artist's sensibility. - British Museum - The Intimate Portrait
- The exhibition The Intimate Portrait features drawings and miniatures by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Ramsey and more. From the National Galleries of Scotland and the British Museum.
BOOKS: Portrait Exhibition Catalogues
The Intimate Portrait: Drawings, Miniatures and Pastels from Ramsay to Lawrence
This book accompanies the first major British exhibition to focus on the more intimate types of Georgian and Regency portraiture.
Miniatures painted on ivory were worn as jewellery on the body or preserved in cabinets; pastels were protected under glass and within gilt frames. Drawn portraits were either framed and hung in family groups or kept in albums or portfolios tobe shown to friends and family.
Intended for more private and personal domestic spaces these delicate portraits on paper and ivory also competed for space on the walls of the Royal Academy annual exhibitions.
Nearly two hundred beautiful but seldom seen examples, drawn from the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland and the British Museum, are discussed within thematic sections on self-portraiture, the depiction of family and friends, andthe art of celebrity.
Exhibition organised by the National Galleries of Scotland and the British Museum.
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From Van Eyck to Bruegel
Edited by Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen, with contributions by Maryan W. Ainsworth, Julien Chapuis, Keith Christiansen, Everett Fahy, Nadine M. Orenstein, Véronique Sintobin, Della C. Sperling, and Mary Sprinson de Jesus, 1998
This profusely illustrated exhibition catalogue focuses on the comprehensive collection of major early Netherlandish works in the Metropolitan Museum, including accomplishments of virtually every key figure of the period. The volume contains commentaries on individual works, essays on broad issues, and an illustrated appendix of paintings not covered in the text.
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Self Portraits: From Renaissance to Contemporary
An ambitious exploration of the self-portrait from its inception in the early fifteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century, this groundbreaking book moves beyond the constraints of art history.
Self Portraits: Renaissance to Contemporary allows us to share an intimate encounter with great artists of the past. The artist once stood before a canvas and gazed into a mirror; we, in turn, stand before the canvas looking at what the artist saw in the mirror. For a moment , time and space are collapsed and we find a reflection of ourselves in the artist's eyes.
With 140 images from collections around the world, From Van Eyck to Chuck Close, this book includes pioneering essays on self-portraiture by leading art historians as well as informative analyses of each of the paintings. The artists are shown constructing their identity, setting the scene for their life and times and above all showing themselves as creative individuals, often captured in the act of conjuring their own image in the studio.
Anthony Bond is Head Curator of Western Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Joanna Woodall of the Courtauld Institute of Art is an early modern specialist, Ludmilla Jordanova is Director of the Centre for Research of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge. T.J. Clark is Professor of History of Art at the University of Berkeley, California and Joseph Leo Koerner is Professor of History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
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Portraiture in the USA
- NGA: Themes in American Art: Portraiture
- A National Gallery of Art resource on themes in American Art.
Notable Portrait Artists
Portrait Societies
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, The RP, Portrait Commissions, Portrait Artists - Home
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters (est 1891), or The RP as it is known, is the foremost Society for Portrait Artists and Portrait Painters in the United Kingdom. Most of the portrait painters and artists are available for private and company portrait commissions
- Royal Society of Portrait Painters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a British association of portrait painters which holds an annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. ...
- American Society of Portrait Artists
- The American Society of Portrait Artists (ASOPA) is the largest portrait artist patron organization in the world.
Founded in 1987, ASOPA has patrons in all 50 states and 34 nations and is a non-profit, 501 - (c) 3 organization. ASOPA is dedicated to furthering the fine art of portraiture and supporting the individual artist
Website includes information on events, competitions, and how to become a patron. - Portrait Society of America, Inc. - Portrait Society, Portrait ...
- The Portrait Society of America, a nonprofit organization is directed by a governing board of artists dedicated to fostering and enhancing the practice, ...
- Portrait Society of Canada
- The Portrait Society of Canada is a public organization, dedicated to fostering the practice, techniques and aesthetics of ...
- Portrait miniature painters, presented by the Hilliard Society
- Portrait miniature painters who accept commissions, listed by country and state or province
- Portrait Artists Australia
- Portrait Artists Australia is an incorporated, non-profit, national association of professional artists, dedicated to representing and promoting the art of portraiture in Australia and overseas.
PAA members are strongly represented in selections for the annual portrait competitions: The Archibald; The Portia Geach; The Doug Moran; The Shirley Hannan; as well as other genre shows, figurative and abstract. Several members are listed on the Historical Memorials Committee Register, eligible for commissions of parliamentary portraits. Several are represented in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Several have received awards in International shows in the US and Europe.
Since its Launch in October 2002 by patron Andrew Sayers, (Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra), PAA has held seven annual shows in the award-winning venue: the ArtHouse Hotel, 275 Pitt St, Sydney. Each year PAA organises an additional exhibition in other venues - for instance the Supreme Court Building Exhibition Space (2006) and Parliament House Gallery in Sydney (2007). - The Society of Portrait Sculptors
- The Society of Portrait Sculptors, a representative body of professional sculptors committed to making portrait sculpture accessible to a wider public.
Eminent Portrait Artists in the History of Art
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Rembrandt van Rijn - Resources for Art Lovers
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This lens is about Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). It shares information about Rembrandt's drawings, etchings, paintings and portraits; museums and art galleries and exhibitions where you can see his work, books and articles about his artwork and lin...
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Mary Cassatt - Resources for Art Lovers
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This lens is about Mary Cassatt - the artist and Impressionist painter. It provides links to where you can: - find out more about Mary Cassatt's life - see images of Cassatt's paintings - either on-line or in museums and galleries around the world -...
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John Singer Sargent - Resources for Art Lovers
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This lens is about John Singer Sargent - noted American painter, draftsman, portraitist, muralist and watercolorist. This site provides a comprehensive overview of John Singer Sargent, his life and his art through links to information sites and image...
Eminent Portrait Artists in the History of Art (continued)
See also the Featured Lenses - preceding this module
- Hans Holbein the Younger Online
- Hans Holbein the Younger [German Northern Renaissance Painter, 1497-1543] Guide to pictures of works by Hans Holbein the Younger in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
- National Portrait Gallery A-Z of Portrait Artists (A)
- National Portrait Gallery (London)
A-Z of Portrait Artists - Hans Holbein the Younger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Hans Holbein the Younger (born c. 1497- died between 7 October and November 29, 1543) was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known for his numerous portraits and his woodcut series of the Dance of Death, and is widely considered one of the finest portraitists of the Early Modern Period.
- Diego Velázquez - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (June 6, 1599 - August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait artist. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted scores of portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).
From the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Velázquez's artwork was a model for the realist and impressionist painters, in particular Édouard Manet. Since that time, more modern artists, including Spain's Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, as well as the Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon, have paid tribute to Velázquez by recreating several of his most famous works. - Titian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1485 - August 27, 1576), better known as Titian, was the leader of the 16th-century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno (Veneto), in the Republic of Venice. During his lifetime he was often called Da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.
Recognized by his contemporaries as "the sun amidst small stars" (recalling the famous final line of Dante's Paradiso), Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits and landscapes (two genres that first brought him fame), mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art.[1] - Jan van Eyck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (before c. 1395 - before July 9, 1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century.
He is responsible for painting Portrait of a Man in a Turban and the Arnolfini Marriage - Albrecht Dürer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- His intense and self-dramatizing self-portraits have continued to have a strong influence up to the present, and have been blamed for some of the wilder excesses of artists' self-portraiture, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
- Nicholas Hilliard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Nicholas Hilliard (c. 1547-January 7, 1619) was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England.
- Joshua Reynolds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 - 23 February 1792) was the most important and influential of 18th century English painters, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealisation of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy. George III appreciated his merits and knighted him in 1769.
- Category:Portrait painters - Wikimedia Commons
- Portrait painters From Wikimedia Commons
BOOKS: Great Portrait artists - Ingres
Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch
This book unites groundbreaking texts by eminent American and European scholars with the most complete visual presentation ever of the masterful portraits of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867).
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Ingres Portrait Drawings: 44 Plates (Dover Art Library)
This splendid volume presents Ingres portraits of many affluent and distinguished men and women of his age, among them the celebrated French composer Charles Gounod. Sources include the Louvre Museum.
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BOOKS: John Singer Sargent - portrait artist
books on Amazon
Notable Contemporary Artists specialising in Portraiture
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Lucian Freud - Resources for Art Lovers
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This site is about Lucian Freud (1922 - present) - possibly Britain's greatest living painter and portrait artist It shares information about the art of Lucian Freud - museums and art galleries, exhibitions and websites where you can see his work, b...
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David Hockney - Resources for Art Lovers
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David Hockney (1937-present) has been voted the UK's most popular living artist. Find out about: the life and art of David Hockney museums, galleries, exhibitions and websites where you can see his work; websites, books and articles about hi...
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Chuck Close - Resources for Art Lovers
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This site is about the artist Chuck Close (1940-present). It shares information about the self-portraits, portrait paintings, prints and artwork of Chuck Close. You can find out about: - museums and art galleries, exhibitions and websites where you...
Notable Contemporary Artists specialising in Portraiture #2
- Portrait Artists, Members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters (est 1891), or The RP as it is known, is the foremost Society for Portrait Artists and Portrait Painters in the United Kingdom. Most of the portrait painters and artists are available for private and company portrait commissions
- The American Society of Portrait Artists - Sargent Medal Winners
- Sargent Medal Winners from 1994 onwards
- Portrait Society of America - Gold Medal Award winners
- Gold Medal Award recipients
- Daniel E. Greene - Portrait Artist, Subway Paintings, Still Lifes, Workshops, Paint Sets & Painting Videos
- Daniel E. Greene, Master Artist in Oils and Pastel
- American Artist: Daniel E. Greene: Gleaning Inspiration From Formative Experiences
- Daniel E. Greene: Gleaning Inspiration From Formative Experiences - by M. Stephen Doherty
Daniel E. Greene is a master painter of portraits, still lifes, figures, and urban scenes executed in pastel or oil. Many of his noncommissioned pictures are based on personal experiences.......... - Portrait Artist & Painter June Mendoza
- June Mendoza AO.OBE.RP.ROI is a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Artists and a Freeman of the City of London. She is one of the world's foremost portrait painters. She undertakes commissions for portraits on a wide range of subjects examples of which are displayed on her Internet gallery. Her
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters - Daphne Todd
- Daphne Todd, president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters from 1994 - 2000, was the first female to hold this office since the Society was founded in 1891. Portraits by Daphne Todd are included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Science Museum; The Royal Holloway Museum and Art Gallery; The Royal Academy (Chantry Bequest); Oxford University; Cambridge University and the University of Wales; beside numerous other educational establishments, institutions and private collections in Britain and Europe.
- Portrait Painting by Portrait Artist Marvin Mattelson
- Marvin Mattelson. Award winning portrait artist. Museum quality, classical realistic family, official and corporate oil portraiture
BOOKS: Modern Portraits and Portraiture
books on Amazon
Chuck Close: Work
The first comprehensive critical examination of one of America's most celebrated living artists. Chuck Close reinvented portraiture almost four decades ago with a series of nine-foot-tall, black-and-white likenesses of himself and fellow artists, which astonished an art world dominated by minimalism and conceptualism. Close has since explored the possibilities implicit in his original breakthrough in an array of mediums. This lavish, large-format volume is the first to deal with all aspects of Close's career and to place them in a biographical context.
A comprehensive monograph dedicated to Chuck Close's career was published by Prestel in November. Chuck Close: Work by Christopher Finch is what Close describes as "the book [about my work] that I've always wanted."
Christopher Finch's insight into Close's achievement comes by way of hundreds of studio visits and thousands of hours of conversation since he met Close in 1968.
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Close Reading: Chuck Close and the Artist Portrait
One of the most admired and innovative contemporary artists working today, Chuck Close has pioneered ideas of scale, form, and color through the theme of portraiture, a genre that he has fundamentally redefined. The first book to focus on Close's self-portraits and the portraits he has made of fellow artists, "Close Reading" is a uniquely intimate portrait of Close's life and work by the former director of the Walker Art Center, Martin Friedman, a longtime friend who has had unprecedented access to the artist. After covering the biographical details of Close's life-including the sudden illness in 1988 that led to near-complete paralysis, and the degree of recovery that enabled him to continue his painting career-Friedman moves on to a probing examination of Close's self-portraiture. The final section deals with Close's paintings of artist subjects
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David Hockney Portraits
David Hockney (b. 1937) is one of the most significant artists exploring and pushing the boundaries of figurative art today. Hockney has been engaged with portraiture since his teenage years, when he painted Portrait of My Father (1955), and his self-portraits and depictions of family, lovers, and friends represent an intimate visual diary of the artist's life. This beautifully illustrated book examines Hockney's portraits in all media-painting, drawing, photography, and prints-and has been produced in close collaboration with the artist. Featured subjects include members of Hockney's family and private circle, as well as portraits of such artists and cultural figures as Lucian Freud, Francesco Clemente, R. B. Kitaj, Helmet Newton, Lawrence Weschler, and W. H. Auden. The authors reveal how Hockney's creative development and concerns about representation can be traced through his portrait work
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Painting People: Figure Painting Today
After a century in which the lexicon of artists' materials expanded from the classic oil, canvas, stone and plaster to include photography, film, performance, found objects and concepts, the spotlight has finally swung back. A new generation of artists--as well as some who never abandoned figurative painting in the first place--is relishing the solitary, slow, subtle set of processes involved in not just painting, but painting people. They are choosing paint's unique ability to distill a lifetime of events rather than photography's glimpse of a frozen moment. "Painting People," edited by the prominent London art historian and critic Charlotte Mullins, unites and contrasts the work of a key group of artists from around the world, and investigates their richly varied accomplishments in lucid text with detailed commentaries, accompanied by more than 150 reproductions.
Release Date: 09/15/2006
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Eye Contact: Modern American Portrait Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery
Showcases fifty graphic masterpieces representing the American artistic tradition from 1880. This work features essays that discuss the nature and change of portrait drawings in the twentieth century and the external cultural changes that influenced artists' conceptualization of the figure.
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Portrait Competitions
Portrait Competitions in the UK - BP Portrait Award
The top portrait award in the UK
The Portrait Award, sponsored by BP, is an annual competition run by the National Portrait Gallery in London. It aims to encourage artists to focus upon and develop the theme of portraiture in their work. The competition is open to everyone aged 18 and over, in recognition of the outstanding and innovative work currently being produced by artists of all ages working in portraiture.
With a substantial first-prize of £25,000 the exhibition has proved the launch pad for the careers of a number of successful portrait artists.
The entire competition is judged, on an equal and anonymous basis, from original paintings. An exhibition is then created from a selection of the entries.
Entry for the BP Portait Award 2008 is now closed. The exhibition will be on display at the Gallery from 12 June - 14 September 2008.
With a substantial first-prize of £25,000 the exhibition has proved the launch pad for the careers of a number of successful portrait artists.
The entire competition is judged, on an equal and anonymous basis, from original paintings. An exhibition is then created from a selection of the entries.
Entry for the BP Portait Award 2008 is now closed. The exhibition will be on display at the Gallery from 12 June - 14 September 2008.
- National Portrait Gallery | BP Portrait Award
- BP Portrait Award - introduction
- BP Portrait Prize - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The BP Portrait Prize is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England.
- BP Portrait Award 2007
- BP Portrait Award
Click on the icons below to discover the 60 works selected for exhibition in 2007, starting with the four works short-listed for the BP 2007 Portrait Award. - Making a Mark: BP Portrait Award
- The rules changed for the BP Portrait Award 2007.
The Portrait Award, now in its 28th year, is dedicated to encouraging artists to focus upon and develop the theme of portraiture. In previous years entry to the competition has been limited to artists under the age of 40. In 2007, the competition is now going to be open to everyone aged 18 and over - Making a Mark: View the BP Portrait Award 2007 and BP Travel Award 2006 exhibitions
- The BP Portrait Award has always had considerable status within the UK as an award for portraiture. This year the rules were changed and the competition was opened up to all artists aged 18 and over living anywhere in the world.
As a result 1,870 people submitted entries for the main prize of £25,000 (an increase of almost 70%) but only 60 were selected for the exhibition - Making a Mark: BP Portrait Award 2008 (call for entries) and BP Travel Award
- Details of how to enter the 29th Portrait Award 2008, sponsored by BP, have been placed on the National Portrait Gallery website.
This is a link to the online entry form and this is a link to the rules. In brief........ - Making a Mark: BP Portrait Award shortlist announced - a woman will win!
- The National Portrait Gallery have announced the four artists short-listed this year for one of Britain's most prestigious art prizes - the BP Portrait Award.
A woman will win. A portrait of a woman that is...... I wonder if it's a first that all four portraits in the short-list are of women?
This post includes a montage of prizewinning portraits plus an explanation of the backgrounds of both artists and portrait. - National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award
- National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award Wolfson Gallery, 12 June - 14 September 2008
- National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award 2008 | Exhibitors
- National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award 2008 | Exhibitors
- Making a Mark: BP Portrait Prize 2008 - exhibition opens
- This post focuses on portraits in the exhibition - in advance of the announcements about the prizewinners.
- Brian Sewell - Portrait Award is a mug's game| Arts & Exhibitions | This is London
- A long and very critical review of the BP Portrait Award 2008 by Brian Sewell, Art correspondent of the London Evening Standard
- Making a Mark: Craig Wylie wins BP Portrait Award 2008
- Craig Wylie has won the first prize in the BP Portrait Award - as I predicted on this blog last week. In fact, I did rather well as I also predicted that Peiyuan Jiang would win the Young Artist Award (for an artist aged 18-30) - and he won too.
- BP website - BP partnership with National Portrait Gallery
- The BP Portrait Award, Europe's major competition for young portrait painters, at the National Portrait Gallery is a major annual event in the UK arts calendar. BP has supported this award since 1990
BP Portrait Award Winners 1990-2008
Then.............and now
This section of the website lists:
1) the image which won the first prize in the BP Portrait Awards
2) the artist's current website (if available)
It's interesting to see how the people who have won the top prize in UK portraiture progress with portraiture after in the years since winning the prize.
1) the image which won the first prize in the BP Portrait Awards
2) the artist's current website (if available)
It's interesting to see how the people who have won the top prize in UK portraiture progress with portraiture after in the years since winning the prize.
- National Portrait Gallery - BP Portrait Award (1990) - Annabel Cullen
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
1990 - Annabel Cullen
Self-portrait © The Artist - National Portrait Gallery - Baroness Blackstone by Annabel Cullen
- National Portrait Gallery
list of portraits for Annabel Cullen including Tessa Ann Vosper Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone by Annabel Cullen, - National Portrait Gallery | BP Portrait Award (1991) - Justin Mortimer
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
1991 - Justin Mortimer
Three Seated Figures © The Artist
1st Prize, BP Portrait Award 1991 - National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase | Justin Mortimer statement
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase (1991) Justin Mortimer statement - Justin Mortimer - Portraits
- JUSTIN MORTIMER
Portrait Commissions
Harold Pinter Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery 1992 - National Portrait Gallery | BP Portrait Award (1992) - Lucy Willis
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
(1992) Lucy Willis
Her Majesty's Pleasure © The Artist
1st Prize, BP Portrait Award 1992 - Lucy Willis - portraits
- Portraits by Lucy Willis plus details of how to commission portraits
- National Portrait Gallery | BP Portrait Award (1993) - Philip Harris
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
1993 - Philip Harris
Curriculum vitae
Personal statement
"Beneath the immaculate paint lies drawing, direct onto the canvas almost of Degas' strength and delivery."
Brian Sewell (1993) Art Review - Philip Harris - super photo realism, contemporary artist
- Philip Harris won the BP Portrait Award in 1993.
He is a contemporary artist who works in the super realism/photo realism genre. Works of his include 'Two Figures in a stream' and 'self portrait'. He studied at Bradford College. He is happy to work on a commission basis as a personal portraiture artist. - National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award (1994) - Peter Edwards
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
1994 - Peter Edwards
Includes Curriculum vitae and Personal statement
Portrait of an Artist's Model © The Artist
1st Prize, BP Portrait Award 1994
Born in Wales, Peter Edwards' first portrait to enter the collection was of the Liverpool Poets Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten; another portrait of the poet Seamus Heaney led to a one-man show of contemporary poets at the Gallery in 1990. In 1991 he painted for the Gallery a life-size portrait of Sir Bobby Charlton and after winning the BP Portrait Award in 1994 Edwards was commissioned to paint Kazuo Ishiguro. - Peter Edwards, Portrait Artist, Fine Art, National Portrait Gallery
- Welcome to the website of Peter Edwards, Modern Portrait Artist.
Here you will find information on completed work and paintings such as Sir Bobby Charlton, Michael Winner and more. - National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award (1995) - Ishbel Myerscough
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
1995 - Ishbel Myerscough
Krishenda © The Artist
1st Prize, BP Portrait Award 1995 - Ishbel Myerscough on artnet
- Here are the top 3 auction results for Ishbel Myerscough
- National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award (1996) - James Hague
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
1996 James Hague
Self-portrait © The Artist
1st Prize, BP Portrait Award 1996 - JAMES HAGUE: AN EXHIBITION OF PORTRAITS
- British BP Portrait Award Winner, commissioned contemporary portraits.
- National Portrait Gallery | BP Portrait Award (1997) - James Lloyd
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
1997 - James Lloyd
Penelope watching tv © The Artist
1st Prize, BP Portrait Award 1997
Includes Curriculum vitae and Personal statement - Making a Mark: James Lloyd wins The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture
- In 2008, James Lloyd won the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture for the most distinguished portrait of the year.
James held the Paul Smith Scholarship at the Slade School of Art (1994-96). He won the BP Portrait Prize in 1997. Other prizes he has won include the ING Discerning Eye Award in 2003 and the Carroll Foundation Award (now the de Laszlo Foundation Award - see below - in 1999. He's undertaken a number of commissions of prominent figures and has two portraits hanging in the National Portrait Gallery including his portrait of Paul Smith. He has recently been admitted to membership of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. - National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award (1998) - Thomas Watson
- National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award | First Prize winner 1998 Thomas Watson
Jude © The Artist
1st Prize, BP Portrait Award 1998 - National Portrait Gallery | What's On | BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase | Thomas Watson CV
- National Portrait Gallery - Thomas Watson CV
- National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award (1999) - Clive Smith
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award First Prize winners showcase
Double Single © The Artist
1st Prize, BP Portrait Award 1999 - National Portrait Gallery - Clive Smith
- National Portrait Gallery
list of portraits for Clive Smith including Sir Ian Murray McKellen by Clive Smith, - National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award | First Prize winners showcase
- BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery | First Prize winners showcase
First Prize winners showcase - A celebration of 10 years of the BP Portrait Award.
2000 Victoria Russell
1999 Clive Smith
1998 Thomas Watson
1997 James Lloyd
1996 James Hague
1995 Ishbel Myerscough
1994 Peter Edwards
1993 Philip Harris
1992 Lucy Willis
1991 Justin Mortimer
1990 Annabel Cullen - National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award 2001 | Images from the BP Portrait Award 2001
- BP Portrait Award 2001 | PAST EXHIBITION ARCHIVE (no images)
The BP Portrait Award 2001 received 661 entries. Of those there were eight prize winners and forty-nine others selected for exhibition.
First prize: Stuart Pearson Wright
Title: The Six Presidents of the British Academy
oil on linen © The Artist - The Saveloy Factory - Stuart Pearson Wright
- The Saveloy Factory: Website of the UK artist Stuart Pearson Wright
- National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award 2002 | Images from the BP Portrait Award 2002
- BP Portrait Award 2002 PAST EXHIBITION ARCHIVE (No images)
The BP Portrait Award 2002 received 760 entries. Of those there were eight prize winners and forty-seven others selected for exhibition.
First prize
Catherine Goodman
Title: Antony
oil on canvas © The Artist - CATHERINE GOODMAN
- Catherine Goodman - website
- National Portrait Gallery | Press releases | BP Portrait Winner
- National Portrait Gallery - BP Portrait award 2003
Charlotte Harris wins £25,000 and, at the Trustee's discretion, a commission of £3,000 to paint a portrait for the Gallery's collection. Charlotte is the youngest artist on this year's shortlist at 21 years old. Her portrait is of her 83-year old grandmother, Doris Davis, who lives in Kent. The portrait was completed over 3 months last summer. Charlotte is currently (as at 2003) in her final year of a BA in Fine Art at Leeds Metropolitan University and is currently studio assistant to Tom Wood, the Visiting Professor of Painting at Leeds University. - Charlotte Harris, Paintings and Portraits
- Charlotte Harris website - paintings and portraits
- National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | BP Portrait Award 2004 | Shortlisted
- PAST EXHIBITION ARCHIVE BP Portrait Award 2004
at the National Portrait Gallery
Images from the BP Portrait Award 2004
The BP Portrait Award 2004 received 955 entries.
There were four prizewinners and fifty others selected for exhibition. - National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award (2005 ) - Dean Marsh
- National Portrait Gallery
BP 2005 Portrait Award Winner - Dean Marsh
Title: Giulietta Coates
oil on board © The Artist
Dean Marsh said "Giulietta is my girlfriend and I wanted to paint her because I love her. It's the second time that I have painted her and it's the largest portrait I've ever done. I spent around four to six months, in total, painting the picture. I'm not sure about my approach to portraiture, except that I try to be honest. I don't flatter". - Dean Marsh - website
- Dean Marsh website - includes portraits (but not updated recently)
- National Portrait Gallery | What's On | BP Portrait Award 2006
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award 2006
Kitty
by Andrew Tift
© the artist - National Portrait Gallery | What's On | BP Portrait Award 2006
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award 2006
Andrew Tift
The winner of the BP Portrait Award 2006 is Andrew Tift for Kitty
Andrew Tift (b.1968) who lives in the West Midlands graduated with a first-class degree and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Central England. His winning portrait is a triptych of Lucian Freud's first wife, Kitty Garman, whom Freud painted many times - Andrew Tift UK Portrait Artist
- I am a figurative realist portrait painter. I work in a highly detailed, intensely realistic manner, environments and narrative objects are important ingredients to my portraits as they can help to reflect and reinforce the sitters identity. I seek to convey people in the most understanding, intimat
- BP Portrait Award 2007 - Michael Simpson by Paul Emsley
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award
ichael Simpson by Paul Emsley, Winner of the BP Portrait Award 2007© Paul Emsley
Oil on canvas - Making a Mark: Paul Emsley wins BP Portrait Award
- Paul Emsley has won the BP Portrait Award and £25,000 prize with his portrait of Michael Simpson - which was featured on this blog last week in this post "View the BP Portrait Award 2007 and Travel Award 2006 exhibitions". Paul wins £25,000 and a commission, at the National Portrait Gallery Trustees' discretion, worth £4,000.
- National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award 2008 - Craig Wylie
- National Portrait Gallery
BP Portrait Award 2008 - First Prize: Craig Wylie
K by Craig Wylie
the artist (b 17.06.1973) was shortlisted for the
first time this year, having been include - Making a Mark: Craig Wylie wins BP Portrait Award 2008
- Craig Wylie has won the first prize in the BP Portrait Award - as I predicted on this blog last week. In fact, I did rather well as I also predicted that Peiyuan Jiang would win the Young Artist Award (for an artist aged 18-30) - and he won too.
- BP Portrait Awards - Portrait of Perfection
- BP website - Pdf file
Since taking over sponsorship of the annual Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1990, BP has helped to unearth some rare artistic talent. ROBIN KNIGHT fills in detail about the award and talks to seven past winners about the effect it has had on their
subsequent careers. Photography by Graham Trott - Making a Mark: BP Portrait Award 2009 - the shortlist
- These are the three artists who have been short-listed from a record number of 1,901 entries received for this Award which is now in its 30th year.
Portrait Competitions in the UK
Ondaatje Portrait Prize and other RSPP prizes
plus the Threadneedle Figurative Prize - which includes people who do portraits
plus the Threadneedle Figurative Prize - which includes people who do portraits
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, The RP, Portrait Commissions, Portrait Artists - Prizes
- The Ondaatje prize for Portraiture (worth £10,000 plus a gold medal)
De Laszlo Prize for Outstanding Portraiture
The Prince of Wales's Award for Portrait Drawing
The Changing Faces Prize
The Arts Club Award - Making a Mark: James Lloyd wins The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture
- James Lloyd is the first artist ever to achieve the 'double' of winning the The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture as well as the the BP Portrait Award which he won in 1997. The Ondaatje Prize is awarded annually to the painter of the most distinguished painting in the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. It is one of the most prestigious prizes in the world of portraiture and the winner receives a prize of £10,000 and the Society's Gold Medal.
- Making a Mark: Portrait completed in 2 hours wins Ondaatje Prize
- The £10,000 Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture and a Gold Medal has been awarded to Michael Reynolds RP for a portrait which took him precisely 125 minutes to execute. The announcement was made yesterday at the Private View for the Annual Exhibition for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
- Making a Mark: The Ondaatje Portraiture Prize is re-awarded - to Tom Coates
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters Awards Panel has withdrawn the Ondaatje Prize from Michael Reynolds (as announced at the Private View and Awards Ceremony on 25th April and included in the Press Pack) and, as reported in Art Daily yesterday, has re-awarded it to the original runner-up Tom Coates RP, RBA, PS, PNEAC instead for his portrait of Ulick O'Connor, Irish writer, playwright'.
- Making a Mark: Threadneedle Figurative Prize (part 2) - Green, Mills, Murdoch and Schierenberg
- A review of shortlisted works in the Threadneedle Figurative Prize - includes portraits
- Making a Mark: The Bulldog Bursary - an apprenticeship in portraiture
- The Bulldog Bursary is that rare privilege - an educational project and a national bursary created to promote professional and artistic development within the field of painted portraiture. It's a prize which is subject to competition and comprises:
* a bursary of £5,000,
* studio space at the Art Academy, close to Tate Modern and
* most importantly, it offers a talented up and coming artist the opportunity to work alongside and be mentored by the members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP).
Portrait Competitions in the USA
- American Artist Portrait Contest!
- Get Your Artwork published in American Artist!
Enter your two-dimensional drawings, paintings, or prints in a contest aimed at exploring creative approaches to this traditional theme. Entries can range from the photographically realistic to the interpretive, and they can be created with any medium or combination of media. The artist must certify that the image represents his or her appearance, personality, and/or spirit. Work will be judged both on the quality and originality of the images, as well as on a brief written explanation provided by the artist. - National Portrait Gallery Competition
- National Portrait Gallery - The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009.
The National Portrait Gallery invites artists all over America to investigate the contemporary art of the portrait for the second Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, to be held in 2009. The competition and resulting exhibition will celebrate excellence and innovation, with a strong focus on the variety of portrait media used by artists today. The National Portrait Gallery welcomes single figures, groups, or self-portraits-from classical drawing and painting or hyperrealistic sculpture to large-scale photography to prints and new media. The competition is named for Virginia Outwin Boochever (1920-2005), a former Portrait Gallery volunteer whose generous gift has endowed this program. - About the Competition
- National Portrait Gallery - The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009.
Competition details - Portrait Society of America, Inc. - Members Showcase competition 2007
- Details of Members Showcase competition 2008
Images of Members Showcase competition 2007
Portrait Competitions in Australia
- Archibald Prize 2009
- The annual and much celebrated exhibitions, of portrait, landscape and subject painting and photographic portraits
Self Portraiture
Self-Portraiture
- Rembrandt van Rijn: Self-Portraits
- Rembrandt van Rijn:
Selected Self-Portraits
No artist has left a loftier or more penetrating personal testament than Rembrandt van Rijn. In more than 90 portraits of himself that date from the outset of his career in the 1620s to the year of his death in 1669, he created an autobiography in art that is the equal of the finest ever produced in literature - Self-portrait - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Albrecht Dürer Self-portrait 1497 is among the earliest known formal self-portraits. He is dressed in Italian fashion, reflecting his international success. ...
- SFMOMA | Exhibitions | Exhibition Overview: Chuck Close
- With nearly 100 self-portraits in a range of media, this exhibition highlights the trajectory of Close's pictorial language over a lifetime, ...
- Art Gallery of New South Wales: Self Portrait: Renaissance to ...
- May 14, 2006 ... The first large-scale exploration of self-portrait painting in oils, spanning 500 years of art history and featuring iconic works from major ...
- NGA Classroom: Who Am I?: Self Portraits in Art and Writing ...
- See what you can discover about these famous artists and yourself as you look carefully at their self-portraits and read from their letters and journals. ...
- Chuck Close: Self-Portraits 1967-2005
- This exhibition, co-organized by the Walker Art Center and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, focuses exclusively on Close's self-portraits in all of ...
- Eye Contact: Modern American Portrait Drawings from the National ...
- In about 1965, when Jacob Lawrence began this self-portrait, his was the face of "Negro" art for white America. The 1941 exhibition of his epic painting ...
- A Collection of Self-portraits
- The self-portrait is the artist's most personal form of expression. It is the ultimate means of self-analysis, presenting an opportunity for self-reflection ...
- lines and colors :: a blog about drawing, painting, illustration ...
- Feb 25, 2008 ... Many of history's great paintings have been self portraits, from Durer and ... 3 comments for American Artist's Self-Portrait Competition » ...
- National Portrait Gallery | What's on? | Mirror Mirror | Self ...
- The self-portrait is the artist's most intimate personal legacy, and most public form of self-advertisement. Self-portraits are often specific in intention, ...
BOOKS: Self Portraiture
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The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art
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Renaissance Self-Portraiture: The Visual Construction of Identity and the Social Status of the Artist
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A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings IV: The Self-Portraits (Rembrandt Research Project Foundation) (v. 4)
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Rembrandt by Himself (National Gallery London Publications)
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Learning about Portraiture
Portrait Commissions
Information and advice on how to commission a portrait
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Commissioning a Portrait Artist
- The Royal Society of Portrait Painters (est 1891), or The RP as it is known, is the foremost Society for Portrait Artists and Portrait Painters in the United Kingdom. Most of the portrait painters and artists are available for private and company portrait commissions
- Miniature art: Commissioning a portrait
- Portrait miniature painters who accept commissions, listed by country and state or province
Learning about Portraits and Portraiture
- National Portrait Gallery | Education | E-Learning
- National Portrait Gallery | Education | E-Learning
- National Portrait Gallery | Education | The Practice of Portraiture
- National Portrait Gallery | Education
The Practice of Portraiture - Suggestions and investigations for Secondary School Art Teachers
based on the National Portrait Gallery collection Liz Rideal
Art Education Officer NPG - National Portrait Gallery | Education | e-Learning | Investigating Drawing | Introduction
- National Portrait Gallery | Education | e-Learning
Investigating Drawing; Explore the different drawing materials; Several techniques, related items and other materials: sketchbook sgraffito hatching pouncing - National Portrait Gallery | Education | The Practice of Portraiture | Double Portrait
- National Portrait Gallery | Education
The Practice of Portraiture | Double Portrait - National Portrait Gallery | Education | The Practice of Portraiture | Group Portrait
- National Portrait Gallery | Education
The Practice of Portraiture | Group Portrait
THE GROUP PORTRAIT: COMPOSITIONAL TRICKS - Portrait Society - NJ & Delaware Blog: Nelson Shanks Answers Questions posed to him from Dan Thompson
- New Jersey and Delaware members of the Portrait Society of America
Nelson Shanks Answers Questions posed to him from Dan Thompson - Portrait Society - NJ & Delaware Blog: Rose Frantzen Demo - 2008 PSA Conference
- New Jersey and Delaware members of the Portrait Society of America
Rose Frantzen Demo - 2008 PSA Conference
Notes courtesy of Florida Ambassador Kerry Vosler - The Museum Network - Portraits & Portraiture: Home
- Using five museum collections, teachers and pupils can find out more about the fascinating subject of portraiture, including how portraits were created, how to strike a commanding pose, how to tell someone's status from their dress and the formal elements that go into making someone's likeness.
- Portraits and Portraiture: Types of Painting
- Types of Paintings: There are many kinds of portraits made for different reasons. Here we will explore those of individuals, groups of people, couples and self-portraits.
Making A Mark on drawing and sketching people
Practical tips for drawing people
- Making a Mark: 10 Tips for How to Sketch People
- Drawing and sketching people is an invaluable way of developing a wide range of artistic skills. I've been drawing people for very many years - family, friends, people in cafes and restaurants, life class models - and other artists.
This post provides 10 tips on how to sketch people - or at least my understanding of how I sketch people. - Pastels and Pencils - A Making A Mark Guide: Life Drawing and Life Class
- A Making A Mark Guide: Life Drawing and Life Class provides answers to the following:
- what is life drawing?
- what are the benefits of life drawing?
- Life drawing teaches you how to see
- Life drawing teaches you how to draw what you can see
- Life drawing enables you to develop your own style of drawing
- practical aspects of a life class
- where can I find a life class?
- what do I need to take?
- what should I expect - of the place, the people and how it all works
- what I'm really worried about..... and the answers to the frequent concerns of people who've never enrolled.
BOOKS: How to paint a portrait
How to Draw and Paint Portraits (Famous Artists School : Step-By-Step Method)
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BOOKS: How to draw and paint a child's portrait
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Painting Vibrant Children's Portraits
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Colored Pencil Portraits
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Portraiture Online
Portrait Forums
- Portrait Artist Forum - powered by vBulletin
- Exchange indepth information with other portrait painters.
- WetCanvas! - Portraiture Forum
- WetCanvas!: Cyber Living for Artists
Portraiture Forum - dedicated to the human portrait in all mediums. - Pet Portraits and Wildlife Forum by Melanie Phillips for all Artists Painting Pet Portraits
- Pet Portraits information, dogs, cats, horses and wildlife
- portrait-sculpture.com :: Index
- Portrait and figurative sculptor's forum
Portraits Online
- Portrait Artists
- Portrait Artists: List of artists specializing in Portraits and index to where their art can be viewed at art museums worldwide.
- A Stroke of Genius - Portrait Artist website
- Portrait artists portfolios - Top contemporary portraitists.
Over 100 artists featured with many specialties including political, judicial, government, official,children's, family.
Blogs and Blogging about Portraits and Portraiture
- National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog
- The Face to Face web log is dedicated to the discussion and study of portraits of people who have made significant contribution to American history and culture and to the study of the artists who created such portraiture.
- Portrait Society - NJ & Delaware Blog
- News, Inspiration and Sharing venue for the New Jersey and Delaware members of the Portrait Society of America
- ART: Still very much alive, thanksThe BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery
- The BP Portrait Prize exhibition at the NPG shows us that painting is alive and in relatively good shape, argues critic Bunny Smedley.
- Facing the truth about portraiture | Art & architecture | Guardian Unlimited
- Laura Cummings comments about portraits by Hockney and contemporary portraits in the National Portrait Gallery
Articles about Portraiture
comments on portraiture, portrait artists and portrait competitions
Quite a lot of Brian Sewell - commenting on the BP Portrait award
- How ugly can the faces get? (by Brian Sewell) | Arts | This is London
- I no longer know the purpose of the annual BP Portrait Award. Twenty-eight years ago, when the National Portrait Gallery initiated it with John Player as the sponsor, its point was clear enough, born of dissatisfaction with the various professional bodies to which painters of portraits belong in hope of inclusion in their exhibitions and the commissions that might stem from them. These bodies had for years seemed trapped in doldrums of their own making, the genre of portraiture - the very thing to which they should have given life - lying in its deathbed, stultified by precedent and cliché. The Portrait Award was to be the remedy.
- Portrait Award is a mug's game (by Brian Sewell) | Arts | This is London
- The rot in portraiture is, on the evidence of this exhibition, a matter of neither age nor nationality, and the genre is in worldwide decline.
Making A Mark
Katherine Tyrrell's blog about: - Making marks with pastels, pencils and pen and ink - Creating new drawings and paintings - Influences on developing both artwork and art careers - Interviews with artists - Information about resources for artists and art
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byPastels and Pencils - Portraiture
- Pastels and Pencils - Life - drawings and sketches by Katherine Tyrrell
- Original fine art by Katherine Tyrrell. Drawings from life of people and cats in pen and ink, pencil and coloured pencils.
- Drawing artists
- Drawing a head and Portraits
- Portraits of Cats
- Fine art prints
These figurative drawings are a mix of fine art drawings and sketches of artists, models and cats. All drawings and sketches are from life...
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- ddixonart ddixonart Jun 16, 2008 @ 8:03 am
- Great lens! I will be adding this to my favorites. 5 stars!
by makingamark
I'm an artist, author and member of the Giants 100 Club who enjoys sharing information about art. Find out more about me in Who is Making A Mark?" or... (more)
