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I did a painting a couple of years ago of two children, facing away, walking down a country road. Neither of the faces were shown. This painting hangs over a fireplace and the mother would definitely argue that this is a portrait of her two children. The body language, the connection with the scene were/are very clear to her and the family.Take this painting and put it over your fireplace and it looses those personal associations and becomes a figurative painting. I think once you arrived at a safe distance from her neighborhood, you could argue that the lady has a figurative painting of her two children.
I would think your painting above would easily be a portrait to you, but, if I hung it in my house it would be "some girl" by the water, until you stopped by and started commenting on that portrait of your daughter.
I've always thought that when the people are generic, and placed in the composition as "elements" of the overall composition, then it's figurative. If the person(s) in the painting are the focus of the composition, and a likeness was implied, then it's a portrait. But then you get back to -- over who's fireplace does it reside?
When a likeness is implied, then the likeness is judged, which is back to Michele's point.
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Mike McCarty
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