Just so you know where I am in this life and/or photo reference debate, I have to say here that I have done very few commissioned oil portraits without using photos. Someday I hope to find the time and the clientele who will sit for me for the time it will take to develop an oil painting with the degree of finish and the level of likeness that will satisfy all parties. (Plus, I had better pick up more talent at doing this somewhere along the line.)

When I was talking about life and wetness, I was thinking that most photographs don't seem to pick up the subtle moisture and reflections of living surfaces, human skin in particular. I think this comes across better when observed in person. I'm looking at the Nelson Shanks portrait on the cover of the recent Artists magazine as I type this; I don't know whether he painted this woman from life or from photos but that skin just pulses with life.

Jeff, there's an old post of Peggy's in which she discusses movement in her portraits. I think it's a portrait of a little boy standing up. If I have time tomorrow I'll search around for it, it's an interesting discussion.


Allan and Sharon, you've given me a lot to think about, and thank you. I like the idea of tension between two points.

Sharon, you can be Dr. Frankenstein, but can I then be Igor? Or was he the goof-off who came back with the wrong brain?

I found it this morning. Peggy discusses movement and "the potential for movement" in her lovely portrait of Jackson, linked below:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=474

Linda,

It is a dilemma. How to get a client to sit. Mostly you can't, unless your reputation is so huge patrons are banging down the doors. My doors are completely intact.

I decided several years ago that I did want my clients to sit. On my last commissioned piece I told them that even though I was taking photos I wanted some sittings.

After the photos were taken the clients said that they would not sit after all. As this was for myself and my portrait rep a huge commission and as I had hired at great expense a photographer ,I was, to wit, a rat trapped. I finished the paintings to their great delight, not to mention my reps. However something had died for me after that experience. I have not and could not do another paid portrait like that again. My requirements are that they sit, as I want them, period. My calender is empty.

But that is my nature, my decision.

I would never to presume or judge the quality of another's work as to whither it was done from photos or from life. Some work interpreted from photos can be exquisite, see Marvin Mattleson's latest oeuvre, and some done from life, horrendous.

The reason I perhaps press for more work done from life is that I see so much work that is so obviously copied from photos. They are just renderings, "See Ma, I am a portrait artist"! There has to be some attempt at studying the human form in a classical manner, before you get to work from photos. So much is missed and so much of the work today looks alike.

Need I mention I have an 18 year old car and a cranky tapped husband. When I met him I was making big bucks as an illustrator. Imagine his surprise now!

My point of view is not , kiddies, a formula for success!

I think Igor would do, by the way your self portrait is gorgeous!

Sincerely,

Linda,

Looking at Nelson Shanks

Thank you, Sharon, for this kind comment. Your good opinion means a lot to me.

Are you familiar with Sargent's "Dr. Pozzi At Home"? It's one of my favorite paintings and I was trying to get similar reds in the background of my self portrait.

My Evening with Dr. Pozzi
 

Several years ago, my art club was throwing a fund raising party to coincide with the Sargent exhibit at the Boston Museum.

The affair was held at a Boston club with an Indian name of some tribe their ancestors had long since annihilated. It was the sort of club that if they knew my pedigree, my membership would have been hysterically refused. It was magnificent and posh.

Early in the evening a very grand and elegant lady of advanced age, wafted down the grand spiral staircase. Elbows were jiggled, people were whispering. All I could gather was that she was a southern belle who had snared one of Boston's richest heirs.

I had the good fortune to sit next to this lady on the bus over the museum. She was lively and funny.

We went into the museum to the Sargent exhibit where we came upon the portrait of Dr. Pozzi. It is impossible to describe the electricity of seeing that painting in person. The closest thing I can think of is the opening scene in the movie "Saturday Night Fever" when a young John Travolta swivels down a sidewalk. After staring at the painting for a few seconds, the lady turned to me and cooed in the creamiest southern drawl imaginable. "Oh I could lose mah virtue to him.!"

Oh Sharon, I love this story! Thank you!

That lady was astute. Here's what my book Sargent (Princeton University Press, 1998) has to say about the esteemed Doctor:

The diabolically good-looking Dr. Pozzi (1846-1919) was a figure of glamour and gossip, a favourite physician of the haute bourgeoisie and something of a male coquette, renowned for his vanity and his love affairs. His lovers are reputed to have included the actress Sarah Bernhardt, who called him 'Doctor Dieu', and tantalisingly, if ancecdotally, Madame Gautreau. His medical specialism was gynaecology, which added some frisson to his liaisons, and there are accounts of demonstrations of his practices (he advocated a bi-manual uterine examination) and of a group he formed called 'The League of the Rose', which verge on the decadent. Yet he was a complex and cultivated man, a bibliophile and collector who owned works by Tiepolo and Guardi, collections of Egyptian and classical sculpture, and decorative art.

The parenthetical information is included for the benefit of those who complain that the Forum is becoming very dull.

And here's the portrait:

Linda,

Have you ever actually seen this portrait? At the Boston Museum exhibition Madame Gautreau and Dr. Pozzi were hung side by side.

Looking at the portrait, one can only imagine how successful his practice must have been.

Linda - where is your self-portrait? Did I miss it being posted?

Kim, it's on my website. It would be too cruel to post it here in the same post as 'Dr. Pozzi' and invite comparisons between Sargent's technique and my own.