[Chris Saper]

Jim, I enjoyed reading your very thoughtful post on this topic. It certainly raises the questions of "What is Portraiture?", "Who is the arbiter of that definition?", and "How in the world did they get that job, anyway?"?

I have come to believe that what I do as a portrait painter is some odd hybrid between a product and a service, and not precisely either one.

Those of us on SOG, for the most part, are doing commission work. By definition, this requires pleasing the BUYER, who may or may not be the subject. There is simply no getting around it, this is not simply art for its own sake, or for that of the painter.

There is no question that there exists a "standard" ...going perhaps to Cynthia's provocative question about "good taste" in portraiture...the standard itself has been established by some combination of tradition, status, romance and egotism (often on behalf of painter and sitter alike)and has existed for hundreds of years.

Getting around (wow, that was circuitous) to the topic at hand, I rather like the self-portrait. I might not commission Freud to paint me, but that has nothing to do with his desire and right to express himself in a personal or powerful way, only to do with my personal taste. But I noted that Jeri Hall did commission Freud to do a nude of her, interesting because traditional beauty is her stock in trade, and she certainly has the resources to have any artist of her choosing do this work.

Regards, Chris