Lavinia Jones, who graduated in Fine Art at Sheffield, is an artist in oils and watercolour. She lectures on art history and appreciation. She moves to Oxford shortly, but we hope she’ll return to give us another superb lecture.
“Can you hear me because my husband never does,” she began. As it was, her excellent delivery was audible and clear. Unfortunately, we are advised, for copyright reasons, not to include internet images to accompany our blogs, so it’s strange talking about art without being able to illustrate.
Turning Heads: Portraiture through Time describes something that catches the imagination or attention to take note. On the other hand, it can imply negativity, such as something offensive in appearance or behaviour. Portraits can do both. With the evolution of expressionism or abstract art since the turn of the 19th century, some painters seek to shock, to be different and yet still to make lots of cash and earn notoriety. “Turning heads” might also have a literal meaning, with the sitter usually turning forwards to face the viewer. This gives a sense of movement and interest. Have you ever noticed the Mona Lisa’s eyes follow you around as you look from side to side?
Quality figure drawing emerged during the Renaissance, the Dutch Golden Age and continuing all the way up to the early 20th century, when schools such as the Slade emphasised its importance, when proficiency in drawing plaster casts was followed by a prolonged period of drawing live models. When the required standard was achieved, only then were students allowed to progress to actual painting. These days much of that has declined. Art schools seem to have replaced much of this tradition, concentrating more on conceptual art, which is not to everyone’s taste.
It had been thought that the advent of photography from the 1830s would be the death knell of portrait painting but it has proved to be a very useful medium or artists to use, and the two art forms sit comfortably together. Many artists use photography to aid planning of a composition or to use as reference in the studio without the sitter’s presence.
So what makes a good portrait? The interaction between the artist and sitter is often distinctive, showing personality, mood, or emotion, but likeness is generally critical and especially important for a commissioned portrait. In the longer term, it doesn’t matter so much if the sitter is unknown to the viewer. More important is the look and demeanour portrayed by the sitter, either posed or informally captured, and painted either expressively or, these days, by photorealism. Even without a good likeness, other aspects of a good portrait, such as the suggestion of power and status, can still leave the sitter happy. On the other hand, Graham Sutherland’s portrait of Sir Winston Churchill, commissioned by Parliament, was destroyed by his wife because they both loathed it.
Sutherland reposted it was “an act of vandalism”. Lord Hailsham, who unveiled it, said “it’s disgusting …ill-mannered … terrible”.
The annual BP Portrait Award is “a stubborn tidemark of traditional skill amid the swift – and some would say shallow – currents of a contemporary art scene. 1 .
Portraits are a great way of reinforcing the memory of those close who have died. A portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni (1488), by Domenico Ghirlandaio, was painted in profile surrounded by the items which are the metonyms for her character; her coral rosary representing fidelity, a Latin inscription and encrusted with fine clothing. Dying in childbirth, she had been painted posthumously, so presumably an exact likeness would have been tricky, but it was nevertheless beautiful.
Renaissance portraits were produced by artists after long apprenticeships such as Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci or Caravaggio, and who were all highly gifted. Michael Angelo’s long-standing relationship with his ultra-rich patrons, the Medicis, was often turbulent but they did make him famous.
Self-portraits have been popular with many artists since the Renaissance. Rembrandt painted many over his lifetime. Rubens sometimes included a discrete self-portrait within a larger group portrait, for example The Tribute Money (1610-15).
One of the best-known portraits from the Dutch Golden Age by Vermeer is Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665-67). A tronie is an anonymous sitter with an exaggerated expression or flamboyant costume to complete a narrative of a genre painting. The sitter for Girl with a Pearl Earring is unknown and thought to be Vermeer’s servant, wearing his wife’s own earring. The painting was little known until the end of the 19th century and sold for two guilders in 1881, but now immortalised by cinema and priceless. How fashions change.
Holbein’s group portrait hanging in the Barber Surgeons’ Hall in London (Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry VIII and The Barber-Surgeons, 1542), celebrates the merging of the Company of Barbers and the Fellowship of Surgeons in 1540. The blogger is relieved that he never had to do barbering.
A large portrait of Elizabeth I was painted by the miniaturist Nicolas Hilliard in 1575. Her phoenix jewel was an emblem for rebirth and chastity. Her stereotyped, mask-like lead-whitened face is immediately recognisable. Lead was highly toxic.
Portrait styles have changed significantly over the past couple of centuries and sometimes are designed to shock. Otto Dix’s Sylvia von Harden (1927) showed the seedy side of Berlin burlesque, a “Neue Frau” promoting sexuality, equality and urban society. Her artistic appeal though, with long hands and pointy face, is reminiscent of Edith Sitwell. Did they both have Marfan’s syndrome?
John Singer Sargent’s portraits, however, are more formal and flatteringly elegant. He was a leading society artist in the early 20th century. His portrait of Sir Frank Swettenham (1904) was commissioned by the Malay Straits Association. Swettenham oozes leadership, power and authority, standing imperiously by a globe on a gilt stand, showing the Malay States; a fabulous formal portrait.
Notable contemporary artists include Bert Stern, who immortalised Marylin Munro with a black and white photograph Marilyn (1962), and Andy Warhol with his Twenty-five Coloured Marilyns (1962). Monroe died in 1962. These images juxtapose tragedy and vulnerability with glamour and celebrity status.
A brilliant example of conceptual art is Marc Quinn’s self-portrait exploring what it’s like to be human in today’s world. Self (1991-present) is an ongoing set of sculptures consisting of a series of head-casts created with pints of his own blood and then immersed in frozen silicone.
Marc Quinn’s work generally considers identity, gender, genetics, environment and media. Everyone knows Marcus Harvey’s iconic painting of Myra Hindley (Myra, 1995). A child’s tiny handprints are stamped on to the pixelations of her underlying photograph. It created a real stir when exhibited and was designed to create controversy. Harvey said: “The whole point of the painting is the photograph. That photograph. The iconic power that has come to it as a result of years of obsessive media reproduction.”
One could go on and on talking about individual artists and their merits or otherwise. Instead, please source further information about any of these works which are extensively discussed and illustrated online.
Reference:
1. The Times, Sept 18, 2011