Portraits - this is what? The meaning of the word "portraits". Samples

In order to understand the meaning of the word "portraits", let us recall for the beginning that this expression was borrowed from the French language. In the French, the words "portrait" (image, depict) meant a detailed description of individual real people or their group by means of literature or fine art. Moreover, along with external similarity, the portrait must also capture the spiritual world of the individual.

What are the portraits?

In our culture, portraits are a separate kind of fine art. Depending on how large a picture should be, the portrait can be a growth, that is, a person on it is depicted as full-length, pectoral, waist or child. There are different portraits in both the pose and the turn of the figure of a man. There are portraits in full face, when the face is turned directly to the viewer; Three quarters - here the head and figure are deployed slightly to the right or left side; Well, of course, profile images.

And there are also so-called ceremonial portraits, which, as a rule, depict people with high social status in formal attire and solemn poses, or portraits on which people can be seen in the familiar home or work environment. Graphic portraits are drawn by artists in pencils, charcoal, sanguine, pastel. A picturesque portrait painting is written with oil on canvas or other paints (watercolor, gouache, tempera, acrylic paints) on paper or cardboard.

There are also self-portraits, portraits, and literary portraits. We'll talk about them separately.

Famous Russian portrait painters

Not every talented artist can draw figures and faces of people, and even more be able to transfer portrait resemblances well. For example, the great landscape painter Levitan absolutely did not possess the portraitist's talent. He always painted only nature. But such Russian artists as IE Repin or VA Serov, had a universal talent that allowed them to freely write both people and nature.

The famous Repin portraits are "Portrait of Chaliapin", paintings "In the Sun" (which depicts Nadezhda Ilyinichna Repina), "Autumn Bouquet", "Dragonfly" (here the painter imprinted the image of his daughter) and many other works by the great artist. In Russian art there is a whole gallery of fine examples of portraiture. In the portrait genre worked IP Argunov, DG Levitsky, FS Rokotov, VL Borovikovsky, KP Bryullov and other masters.

Self-portraits

Self-portraits - this genre of fine art deserves special attention. Such portraits are the artist's image of himself, such as he sees himself as if from the outside. Not every person is able to draw his reflection impartially and truthfully. Psychologists say that people tend to see their own image in a mirror somewhat differently, not in the same way as those around them. But geniuses can look at themselves impartially. Some famous painters constantly painted their own portraits. For example, the artist-impressionist Vag Gogh. Up to now, 35 self-portraits, written in different years of his life, have reached him.

Another record holder for images of himself - Albrecht Durer (50 paintings). But the unconditional leadership in the number of self-portraits belongs to the great Flemish Rembrandt. There are as many as 90 canvases on which his image written by himself is present. Self-portraits were also written by Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Durer and Gauguin. In recent years, some art historians even lean toward the idea that the famous "Gioconda" is nothing more than a veiled portrait of da Vinci. This version, although controversial, but certainly very interesting.

Literary portraits

Literary portraits are very interesting. In a picturesque picture, even the most talented artist can not display all the traits of a person's character, his habits, etc. But a portrait book can perfectly cope with such a task. Thanks to the literary portraits of great people who were created by writers after careful study of historical sources and eyewitness accounts, we can now present in the smallest detail the images of Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol and many other great writers, Artists and historical personalities.

Often detailed literary portraits can be described in artistic memoirs. The person on the pages of the book tells about his life, about the historical epoch, on which it came, and certainly mentions people who were nearby, about the stories that happened to them. An example of such a genre is the book by TA Kuzminskaya "My Life in Yasnaya Polyana", where she tells not only her life story, but also masterfully tells a story about the life of Leo Tolstoy and his family.

Photo portraits

Well, finally, we got to the photo portraits. In the late 30-ies of the XIX century. The Frenchman Louis Daguerre invented a photograph. Since then, people have had a great opportunity to capture their images quickly and in any quantity. Services of artists at all times were very expensive, so that earlier only rich and famous people could afford to have their own portraits. But with the advent of the photographic method, everything has changed. Now everyone could leave their images to the descendants for memory. A photographic portrait is a separate genre. The camera has no emotions and fixes the features of the person most truthfully, at the same time it is capable of capturing emotions, the character of a person and his spiritual world.

Thanks to the photo, we can judge today the appearance of long-gone people. There are wonderful photo portraits of Sergei Yesenin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Albert Einstein, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and other well-known talented people who have made a great contribution to the development of the artistic and scientific values of our civilization.