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Hello, Mike, I very much agree that if we never paint our subjects smiling, "we miss out on conveying to the viewer a very important characteristic of the subject, particularly to those who will hopefully view our paintings after we are long gone." Generally I feel that human expression is more important than purely physical appearance in creating our bonds with each other. So to me, capturing the subject's unique facial expression is a critical element of portraiture. And the smile creates some of the closest human bonding of all. So I believe it shouldn't be excluded from portraiture by hard and fast rules - especially when the subject is a humorous, outgoing person, as you describe your daughter. A portrait of a person like this should capture her outgoing spirit as much as her physical appearance.
As some one new to this forum, I'm realizing this is an old thread, and I'm not sure what the etiquette is in pursuing it years later! However, the reason I launched into this is that I would love if you could provide names of some specific examples of the Sargent paintings you were referring to - I'd very much like to find & view them.
Thanks,
Anne
blog.AnneBobroffHajal.com
AnneBobroffHajal.com
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