Portraits

[pegkerr]

I read this interesting article on the blog Jane Austen's World [janitesonjames] about the making of silhouettes, which was hugely popular and inexpensive way to capture likenesses before photography was invented. Those of you who saw the movie "Sense and Sensibility" may remember the scene where Marianne creates a silhouette of Willoughby, using a candle and graphing paper.

It made me think about the human impulse to capture the likeness of loved ones. I do this by having pictures taken of our family, and as you know, they have given me a great deal of pleasure. I've mentioned previously my family's connection with the artist Richard Serrin, and the picture he painted of our family, placing us all in a piazza in Italy.

Besides these instances, I sat for a portrait with an artist when I was nine years old. Mom and Dad commissioned one of each of their children when we were on vacation in Rockport, Massachusettes, and the four portraits hung on the wall in our family room for years (Mom and Dad, do you still have those portraits? They're not hanging on your wall in your new home presently, I believe?) I remember very well sitting for that portrait, and being so fascinated by how the artist captured my face (I thought) so exactly. When it was done, my parents decided that they didn't quite like the color of the checking on my dress (it was lavender) and so the artist re-touched it, changing the lavender striping to blue. I remember thinking how strange that was, to have such an exact replica of my face and yet to change the detail of what I was wearing. Sort of a non-photographic version of Photoshop.

When I was in my teens, my dad took a sketching class, and he invited me to come to one class to act as the model (fully clothed, honest!) One of the artists gave me her sketch of my face when the class was over, and I've kept it in my genealogy box, as a picture of myself at that age.

Then, of course, there are the caricatures I've occasionally had made at amusement parks, parties, etc.

Have you ever sat for a portrait, in oils or pen drawing or otherwise? What was the occasion? Were you happy with the result? Can you post a picture of it? What do you think is gained by having a portrait in an artistic medium other than photography?

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

One of the assignments for my painting class in college was a self-portrait. I did mine in monochrome blues, with a field of stars in the background and what looked like a v-necked sequined dress that faded into the field of stars. It was my favorite of the paintings I did, and I thought it was a painting of me and not just a painting of what I look like. It's at my parents' house still, stored in the basement somewhere. Between the color and my non-professional painting skills, it was not the exact replica of my face that you describe. But it was recognizably me, and thinking carefully about what I wanted to show about myself was interesting.

There are also photographs that are pictures of me and not just pictures of what I look like, I think. dd_b has gotten more than one.

My best girl friend from college was fond of having amusement park/boardwalk/etc. caricatures done for awhile. I was not impressed with them. They tended to use stock props rather than props that would have anything to do with gaaldine's personality, and I thought that a good caricature exaggerates the person's features without being mean. These didn't look like an exaggerated version of her to me, they looked like an exaggerated version of someone else. So that seemed pointless to me, but I was glad she enjoyed comparing the different ones she got.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, and my grands have a silhouette of me at 18 months, which hangs with silhouettes of my parents and godfathers in their dining room. I'm startled by how well it captures what I looked like at that age, but the thing that stands out for my parents and grands was that the silhouette person was impressed at how I sat still for it, when they'd taken for granted that of course I would if they explained it to me.