"Repeatable" Portraits

[Mike Dodson]

I don't want this post to come across as negative, because I have been guilty of doing the same thing, but has anyone noticed that when you go to the web-sites of most portait artist's and view all the collected icon's on the cover page you get the feeling you are looking at a photographers web page? I don't mean the level of realism but the poses. The same pose over and over. For example, all little girl looking at the camera smiling with a white dress. Judicial portraits sitting in a chair wearing a robe. A business man in a suit standing in front of his desk. The same repeatable lighting from painting to painting. If we are admirer's of the great painters of the past, what happened to the paintings of people involved in some type of activity, a group portrait with some of the subjects engaged or distracted by something going on away from the sitting or looking away. Is it a lack of time up from creating interesting compositions, a change in what clients want in a portrait from the past or are we just playing it "safe"? I just don't feel I am seeing enough variety in portfolio's vs. those of the past (including my own I might add). This is an area of my work I would definitely like to change. What are your thoughts on this?