A portrait is defined as a visual representation of a person usually showing the face. Typically in portraiture, the face and its expression is predominant, and the intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. A representation of specific individual traits can be central to the subject. A portrait does not merely have to record someone's features, however, but can say something about who the subject is, offering a vivid sense of a real person's presence. Profile view, full face view, and three-quarter view, are three common designations for portraits, each referring to a particular orientation of the head of the individual depicted. Such terms would tend to have greater applicability to two-dimensional artwork such as photography and painting than to three-dimensional artwork such as sculpture where the viewer can usually alter their orientation to the artwork by walking around it.

'Fleeting time thou hast left me old' Oil on wood by Ivan Albright 1968

Ivan Albright was perhaps Chicago's most important painter. Among Albright's typically dark, mysterious works are some of the most meticulously executed paintings ever made, often requiring years to complete. Lace curtains or splintered wood would be recreated using brushes of a single hair. The amount of effort that went into his paintings made him quite possessive of them. Even during the Great Depression he charged 30 to 60 times what comparable artists were charging, with the result that sales were infrequent. In order to survive he relied on the support of his father, and took odd carpentering jobs.  Albright focused on a few themes through most of his works, particularly death, life, the material and the spirit, and the effects of time. He painted very complex works, and their titles matched their complexity. He is most well known for his portraits showing unflattering images of real people in everyday situations.

Some of the earliest surviving painted portraits of people who were not kings or emperors, are the funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypt’s Fayum district.

This plaster bust of Queen Nefertiti is believed to have been crafted in 1345 BC by the sculptor Thutmose. 

The art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. During the 4th century, the portrait began to retreat in favor of an idealized symbol of what that person looked like. In the Europe of the early Middle Ages, representations of individuals are mostly generalized. True portraits of the outward appearance of individuals re-emerged in the late Middle Ages, in tomb monuments, donor portraits, miniatures in illuminated manuscripts and then panel paintings. The Moche culture of Peru was one of the few ancient civilizations which produced portraits. These works accurately represent anatomical features in great detail. The individuals portrayed would have been recognizable without the need for other symbols or a written reference to their names. The individuals portrayed were members of the ruling elite, priests, warriors and even distinguished artisans. They were represented during several stages of their lives. The faces of gods were also depicted. There is particular emphasis on the representation of the details of headdresses, hairstyles, body adornment and face painting.

Artists have used portraiture to express the human experience in many different ways. Karl Wirsum is member of the notorious Chicago artistic group The Hairy Who, he helped set the foundation for Chicago's art scene in the 1970s. Wirsum is primarily a painter, though he has worked with prints, sculpture and even digital art.

In his iconic portrait of the musician 'Screamin Jay Hawkins' Wirsum uses an almost electric energy of line color and texture to capture the spirit of the man and his music.

Salvador Dalí was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork, to the dismay of those who held his work in high esteem, and to the irritation of his critics.

Dali Used an amalgem of visual concepts, and optical illusions to create his powerful portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The epic painting seen from a distance brings up the visage of Lincoln, but as the viewer approaches the canvas Lincoln disapears and is replaced by an image of Dali's wife gala standing nude at a window.

Andres Serrano is an American photographer and artist who has become notorious through his photos of corpses and his use of bodily fluids in his work, notably his controversial work "Piss Christ", a red-tinged photograph of a crucifix submerged in a glass container of what was purported to be the artist's own urine.

Serrano's work is both beautiful in it's color balance and exact detailing, and controversial at heart. In the portrait above 'J.B. Pimp' Serrano explores the dark underbelly of human society while poking fun at the  common American photographic portait backdrop.

Dorathea Lange used black and white silver gelatin prints to document a migrant farm worker during the depths of the depression.

How does the composition add to the sense of uncertainty in the subject's face? What about the absence of color?

When the artist creates a portrait of him or herself, it is called a self-portrait. Commonly artists can more freely pursue their own ends, whether to claim elevated status, to showcase technical mastery, or to seek frank self-reflection. Self portraiture allow for experimentation unusual in commissioned works. Identifiable examples become numerous in the late Middle Ages, but if the definition is extended the first was by the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten's sculptor Bak, who carved a representation of himself and his wife Taheri c. 1365 BC. However, it seems likely that self-portraits go back to the cave paintings, the earliest representational art, and literature records several classical examples that are now lost.

One of the most celebrated self portraiture artists would have to be the Mexican born artist Frida Kahlo. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form. Kahlo had a volatile marriage with the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and  suffered lifelong health problems, as a result of a horrific accident she survived as a teenager when she was impaled by a bus handrail. Recovering from her injuries isolated her from other people and this isolation influenced her works.

'The two Fridas' Oil on Canvas 1949 by Frida Kahlo

Kahlo suggested, "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best." She also stated, "I was born a bitch. I was born a painter."

During the renaisance, it is believed that the great master Caravaggio often cast himself as a character into commissioned religious paintings such as 'Judith beheading Holofernes'.

Caravaggio's approach was, typically, to choose the moment of greatest dramatic impact, the moment of the decapitation itself. The figures are set out in a shallow stage, theatrically lit from the side, isolated against the inky, black background. Judith and her maid Abra stand to the right, partially over Holofernes, who is vulnerable on his back.

USING PORTRAITURE IN THE STUDIO

'The Scream' Tempura and pastel on cardboard by Edvard Munch 1893

 EMOTIONAL PORTRAIT

Exploration of human emotional states is an enduring topic of interest across artistic disciplines. Through examination of historical self-portraits from different eras and genres, recognize artists employ color, line,
composition, metaphor, expression, personal history and manipulation of the media to communicate a narrative with emotional content and context. View artwork from artists Caravaggio, Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Cindy Sherman to have a broad understanding of portraiture. Then create a portrait that uses emotion to help describe the subject in some way.

• Examine and discuss self-portraits from various historical and geographic locations. Consider the historical/social/personal context of the work and its influence on the emotional content of the subject.

What does the portrait tell you about the artist?
What do you know about the period in which it was made? What do you infer from the visual information or the artists clues?

• Discover through hands on exploration how the artist uses the elements of line, value, color, and composition. How do artists make conscious choices about the visual elements that represent specific ideas or content? Discover how the artists handle artistic media, including brushwork, camera angle, contrast, etc to impact the message.

What is your story? Recollect a pivotal event in your life that caused a profound emotional experience. How would you portray depression? Joy? Surprise? What visual elements would you include in your composition to communicate your story?

• Understand (critical analysis of your work and works from art history) how the context of the work is intrinsic to the actual image (Post WWII Francis Bacon portraits of the pope, mental illness of Vincent Van Gogh)

How did the elements of your composition help to tell your story? What was your original artistic intent and how did it evolve as you progressed?

'Purple Haze' by Cherry Inthalangsy, a graduate of the Jaffe Institute.