Portrait

An example of a portrait showing the painterVincent van Gogh.It is a self-portrait because van Gogh is also the person who made the portrait.

Anthony van Dyck,Charles I in Three Positions,1635-1636, shows profile, full face and three-quarter views, to send toBerniniin Rome, who was to sculpt a bust from this model.

Aportraitis apaintingor aphotographof aperson'sfaceand its expression. The purpose of a portrait is to show the likeness,personality,and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography, a portrait is actually not a snapshot, but a calm image of a person in a still position. A portrait normally shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer.

Gallery

• 
  Girl with a Pearl Earring,Vermeer's most famous painting.
• 
  William Orpen:Portrait of Gertrude Sanford,1922
• 
  Roman-Egyptian funeral portrait of a woman
• 
  Sharaku:Actor Ichikawa Ebozo as Takemura Sadanoshin, 1794.
• 
  Butch Cassidymug shotfrom the Wyoming Territorial Prison in 1894.
• 
  Photographic self-portrait by Edward S. Curtis, 1899

Other websites

• National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution
• National Portrait Gallery London
• Painting The Century 101 Portrait Masterpieces
• Jeanne Ivy's Self-Portrait PageArchived2002-03-10 at theWayback Machine-What Artists Find When They Search in the Mirror.
• Portrait Detectives- Fun interactive introduction to the analysis of portraiture.
• Reportret- A gallery of reconstructions of missing portraits from world history.