 |
|
Beauty is everywhere in nature. Artists have always been inspired by nature to create their works of art. We are too part of the natural world, even if we are so detached nowadays and feel so far away from the place we once belonged.
We are beautiful creatures. Our body
is a miracle of perfection. Ugliness doesn’t exist. Perfect beauty doesn’t
exist either. It exists in attractiveness, but it’s not the same. We create
beauty standards to classify our world, as usual. The fact that beauty
standards are always changing, evolving and coming back means that there can be
beauty everywhere.
The rudeness, wickedness, sickness,
all those things can make us feel ugly. Stereotypes conveyed by TV and social
media make us feel ugly as well. We compare ourselves to a selection of
recognised beauty standards. Those beauty standards are often manipulated and
fake.
There was an interesting commercial a
few years ago, that showed that we think we are more ugly than we are. An
artist makes a blind portrait, following the instructions of a woman, and then
the artist makes another portrait of the same woman according to the
instruction of a third person. In the end, the artist shows both portraits to
the woman portrayed and the difference between the two is incredible. The
woman portrayed realises that other people see a more beautiful version of her. The experiment shows how we often perceive our image in the wrong way,
only focusing on some features that we consider ugly and not seeing the whole
picture.
I’ve always loved drawing portraits
since I was a teenager. I started drawing my favourite singers and actors, for
me it was a way to approach them and establish a connection.
Portraiture is a very old art form going back at
least to ancient Egypt, where it flourished from about 5,000 years ago. Before
the invention of photography, a painted, sculpted, or drawn
portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone. But it’s more than
that. Portraits have been used to show the power,
importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the person
portrayed.
Portraits have almost always been flattering, and painters who refused to flatter, such as William Hogarth, tended to find their work rejected. A notable exception was Francisco Goya in his bluntly truthful portraits of the Spanish royal family. (Tate)
_1954.6.1.jpg)
- Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
- Italian Woman (La Morieri) Free image from The National Gallery of Art (Washington)
The advent of photography was
an important turning point in democratising who could be portrayed, because artists
themselves played a major part in deciding who was worthy of depiction, deeply
challenging social conventions as they did so. Photography became the most important medium of traditional
portraiture, making what was before an expensive luxury product, affordable for
almost everyone.
Nowadays, portrait paintings on commission are increasingly rare
but painting portraiture has not disappeared nor lost its value, it has
embodied new missions and ways of artistic expression.
In this BBC article, “Why portraits have fascinated us for millennia”, Cath Pound points out
that, if before painting portraits were a mark of rank, status or celebrity, nowadays
portraiture is about existentialism and psychology. It depicts who we are and
our place in society, it’s about identity. Portraits don't need to be flattering anymore, they need to be real.
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.― The Picture of Dorian Gray
I find
this quote extremely inspiring because being portrayed can be an exciting
experience for the sitter, but it is also a fascinating experience for the
artist. Painting in general has a lot of health benefits (Enhances Problem-Solving Skills, Builds Nonverbal Communication Skills, Encourages
Positivity and Offers Stress
Relief, etc.), but painting portraiture also establishes a real connection
between two individuals, which is not so common nowadays. It’s a way to reveal our personality and relationship with the world. When reality is increasingly transformed to reach unreal beauty standards, a painting portrait is a way to promote authenticity.
 |
| My self-portrait, pencil on paper, 2023 |
Have you ever been portrayed or painted portraits? How was your portrait experience?
2024/2025 Exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery (London)
Francis Bacon, The Human Presence
Edward Munch, Portraits
Jenny Saville, The Anatomy of Painting
Comments
Post a Comment