Portraits

Given that today is President's Day, we are likely to see portraits of our famous presidents, especially Washington. We are likely to see painted portraits and I was thinking of the famous portraits of Washington when I remembered this fascinating documentary on portraiture, in which an artist looks at the way portraits and the painter's self-portraits, placed side-by-side, reveal an intentional, or not, resemblance.

This is sort of how we see ourselves in actors, singers, and other celebrities that we admire. In the case of the artist, it is an opportunity to project themselves onto the world stage, or at least in the permanent visual memory of a historical figure. Seems funny to me...

Portraits are a wonderful way to appreciate your life, not the events but the actual existence. I used to work for a woman who decided that she would have a full length portrait of herself done for her 60th birthday. She looked daunting from the high place above her mantle. A much younger woman had hers done after surviving her battle with cancer. The portrait affirms something. What though?

The National Portrait Gallery houses the nation's collection of important portraits. I have not gone there in many years, but the last time I remember being surprised that it was so empty. I think portraits can sometimes feel excessively historical as if they were merely documents of someone's life and not visual revelations of some aspect of a person. I am inclined to revisit it when I am in DC next and see how I respond now.

Good portraits reveal something, although I am smiling to think of some of the artists I have known to paint portraits. Indeed, the portrait does quite easily reveal the artists own designs, launched from the figure painted. The portrait is a vision of the sitter they could not have seen without the artist.