We are at the point in this world where the average person with a quality mobile phone can take pictures as good as a professional could have taken a couple of decades ago. The rise of selfies and social media platforms that let us share them easily should mean that the days of the hand-painted portrait are long gone. Instead, there’s a growing trend for portrait painting fueled by the history and significance of these works of art.
A short history
Portrait painting of people and the things they value, from pets to property, first became popular in 15th century Europe. Before that, portraiture (and even earlier, sculpture) had been entirely the province of the powerful. Starting In the 1400s, that began to change, and it became more and more common for ordinary people to have portraits done.
The earliest portraits usually had a religious or political purpose. For centuries, only figures of great power were featured on the faces of coins. As the art of painting and portraiture matured, more of the wealthy and powerful wanted to have a portrait. By the 18th century, it had become common practice even for ordinary working-class people to have a small portrait of themselves or a loved one either to hang in the home or even carry around.
With the rise of photography in mid 19th century, portraiture slowly but surely fell out of fashion because people were able to acquire their own cameras and achieve in mere seconds what painters take days to accomplish. Yet portraiture never truly went away, and in the 21st century it is again a rising trend.
Portraiture significance
Understanding the history of portraiture means grasping something of what a portrait means. The Bible records an incident when people asked Jesus about taxes, and Jesus responded by showing them a coin and asking “Whose image is this?” When they replied that it was the image of Caesar, Jesus told them to “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”
Such coins were the earliest types of portraiture, and they represented raw, bald power. Caesar stamped his coins to assert his absolute power, and portraiture was associated with a godlike authority and even with worship. It was the reserve of those at the very top of power.
Over time, lesser authorities and the wealthy wanted their portraits done, too, but these were not mere pictures. They were always meant to showcase something about the person or to communicate who they truly were inside. Initially, portraits were hung to honor donors or memorialize the person or acts of heroes, and this sense of significance was not lost when ordinary people began getting their own portraits.
Portraits were always meant to highlight what was unique about the person in a way viewers could connect with, and that is what makes them special.
Modern portraiture
So why do people still want hand-painted portraits when the camera phone is right there in their hands? It all comes down to history and significance. A hand-painted portrait is done by an artist who specializes in understanding what’s special about the person and finding a way to convey that through art.
This can be done in person but also from afar. You can even have a painting done of a photo these days, but when you ask, “Can you paint my photo?” the response you’re likely to hear is, “Sure. Tell me about the person in the picture. Tell me some family history and some memories.”
Portraiture isn’t a picture. It’s a message that tells a story in a medium that can be passed down through generations. It links the past to the present, and all of us to the history of self-expression.