Art History Friday

Famous
Portrait
Painters
The Short Version of the Long History of Portraiture
Portraiture started with the Ancient Egyptians
Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used
portraiture for funeral and public art
Egyptians used portrait statues as a home for
the deceased persons spirit
Greeks and Romans sculpted portraits of
rulers to remind the public of their power.
Some members of royalty & the wealthy
commissioned private portraits
The Short Version of the Long History of Portraiture
During the Middle Ages, the art of portraiture
was lost.
Renaissance artists re-learned how to paint
and sculpt portraits by studying ancient art.
Northern Renaissance artists were the first to
make successful portraits, followed by Italian
Renaissance artists.
Most portraits were of religious figures and
royalty.
The Short Version of the Long History of Portraiture
Artists continued to refine their portraiture
skills and teach future generations
Portrait painting became a popular skill -
royals and wealthy people bought painted
miniatures.
Portraiture became less realistic after the
invention of photography
Contemporary portraits are sometimes
hyper-realistic and larger than life
Diego Velzquez
Born 1599, Died 1660
One of the most important painters of the
Spanish Golden Age during the
Baroque period.
Hired as the official portrait painter of the
Spanish Royal Family
His parents faked a noble lineage to allow
him to work in the royal court
Used a limited palette of white, red, yellow,
two shades of blue, and several shades of
brown.
Self Portrait
Diego
Velazquez,
Las Meninas
Elisabeth Vige Le Brun
Born 1755, Died 1842
Father was a portraitist
Began working as a professional portraitist
in her early teens, eventually joined the
French Academy
Through the Academy, met many members
of the French nobility
Became the close friend of Marie Antoinette
Fled France during the French Revolution,
worked with the Russian nobility for
several years before returning to France

Self Portrait in a Straw Hat

Marie Antoinette and her Children
John Singer Sargent
Born 1856, Died 1925
Now considered the leading portrait painter of his
generation, but was not famous during his lifetime
Born in Italy to American parents
Studied at the cole des Beaux-Arts and exhibited
at the French Academys Salon
His famous portrait, Madame X, brought scandal
and led to Sargent moving to London, where he
found more success
Painted several famous individuals, including
President Theodore Roosevelt
Madame X Sargent in his studio with Madame X in the background
Chuck Close
Born 1940
Paints photorealistic, massive portraits
Suffers from prosopagnosia - face
blindness. He cannot recognize faces that
should be familiar.
Uses a grid system to replicate faces
Became paralyzed from the neck down in
1988, after a spinal artery collapse. He now
can move his arms and paints with a brush
strapped to his hand.
Also creates prints and woven tapestries
Lucas, 1987
Kehinde Wiley
Born 1977
Lives and works in New York City
Paints Black and
African-American men and women
in a fusion of styles - French
Rococo, Islamic, and West African
with images from contemporary
urban Black culture.
Figures are painted in heroic,
larger-than-life poses
Often takes poses from famous
paintings and reinterprets them
 Shantavia
Beale II,
2012

Ice T,
2005