J elizabeth portraiture
Noteworthy Portrait Artists and Portraits: Ancient Cave Paintings. A Brief Chronological History Marble portrait by Roman (first half of the 3rd century A.D.)via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0 Ancient Portraiture in Greece, Egypt, and Rome Within these styles exists an infinite array of portrait styles including post-impressionist paintings, abstract portraiture, marble sculpture, and photography. In the case of a self-portrait, the artists may decide to create the work from memory or with the aid of a personal photograph. Traditionally, the individual subject will be in a room with the artist and sit with their face in either a profile, full-face, or three-quarter position. The quintessential portrait is that of the individual or self-portrait. There are a myriad of portrait styles throughout history ranging from the classic portrait to self-portraits and portrait photography. Regardless of the medium, the goal is to capture the likeness, unique charm, and personality of the portrait’s subject. However, throughout history, portraits have been represented through sculpture, painting, photography, and many other creative mediums. Elizabeth did marry just five years after her portrait was painted, and the painting ultimately passed to her son Chandler Chapman, who generously donated it to the National Museum of American Art in 1980.When one thinks of a portrait, the classical representation is a painting of an individual, focusing on their face or on the bust upward. Margaret kept it in her home until her death in 1963. The portrait was commissioned in 1893 by Elizabeth’s younger sister, Margaret. Did the artist intentionally fix Elizabeth halfway between motherhood and old age? These have been identified as a Madonna and Child on the right, and a copy of an old woman from a Frans Hals painting on the left. Sargent included a couple of paintings from his collection in the picture. She was twenty-six, an age when most women were tending children of their own. Sargent painted her portrait in his London studio when Elizabeth Chanler was there for her brother’s wedding. The portrait here suggests the contest of discipline and emotion that she must often have experienced. But when her mother died prematurely, Bessie was left to help care for seven younger brothers and sisters. Her mother was a descendant of John Jacob Astor. Her father was a Democratic congressman from New York. William Kloss best captured these tensions when he wrote of the young woman’s “inner ardor under fierce control, her strength of purpose and nervous strain.”Įlizabeth Chanler was born in 1866 to distinguished parents. Sleeve puffs threaten to escape into the upper register. One pillow is pinned by an elbow, creating a bullseye, and a ripple effect in the pattern. They are symbolically vanquished by a Renaissance jewel. These forces are barely held in check by tightly locked hands and arms. Who will blink first?īelow the sofa line, powerful shapes of black ball gown and restless pillow patterns contend for dominance in a deeper, churning space. Her eyes, flanking the perpendicular of her nose and mouth, meet ours in a fixed stare. The perfect oval of Miss Chanler’s head is exactly centered, and it’s balanced by the stable verticals and horizontals of two framed objects. Everything above the horizon line of the sofa back is symmetrical and calm, in a shallow space.
#J elizabeth portraiture full#
“Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler” by Sargent is full of visual echoes and effects that reward close looking. Sargent was often dismissed by his contemporaries as a “society portraitist,” but his paintings always convey the human story behind the image.Įxhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006īETSY BROUN: Some pictures are fun just to look at, even before you know anything about them. Perhaps the artist wished to show Elizabeth as a woman who, despite early hardships, was neither maiden nor matron. Her arms, leg-of-mutton sleeves, and the pillows seem to wrestle with one another only her clasped fingers and elbows keep everything under control. Elizabeth’s gaze is direct, her face centered between two paintings: a Madonna and Child and a figure of an old woman copied from Frans Hals. The top half of the portrait is ordered and still. Sargent painted her while she was in London for a brother’s wedding, and the artist composed the portrait as if to suggest a turmoil of emotions in his sitter. When Elizabeth was still a girl, her mother died, leaving her to help care for seven younger brothers and sisters. Inventories of American Painting and SculptureĪccording to Sargent, twenty-six-year old Elizabeth Chanler had “the face of the Madonna and the eyes of a child.” This portrait shows a beautiful, well-bred woman who has learned to be strong.