Portrait

A portrait is a painting or a photograph of a person's face and 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.

An example of a portrait showing the painter Vincent 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 to Bernini in Rome, who was to sculpt a bust from this model.

Gallery

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  Girl with a Pearl Earring, Vermeer's most famous painting.

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  William Orpen: Portrait of Gertrude Sanford, 1922

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  Roman-Egyptian funeral portrait of a woman

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  Sharaku: Actor Ichikawa Ebozo as Takemura Sadanoshin, 1794.

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  Butch Cassidy mug shot from the Wyoming Territorial Prison in 1894.

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  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 Page Archived 2002-03-10 at the Wayback 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.