Portraits--More Art Historians Speak Up

Now that I have a moment free (having turned in the paperwork for graduation and graded 20 of the 70 exams), I suppose it is time to return to the Portrait Question, which has been of ongoing interest to both the art historians and the other interested parties.

Saskia says:

"Here's my contribution to your project. I'm basing this totally on aesthetic preferences, and not on some deep psychological sense of self fashioning.

I have to admit that part of me would love to have a portrait done by Tamara Lempicka - I love the style of her women; they are somehow both supremely feminine and coldly angular. In a similar sort of way, I would also love to imagine myself as an Erte, though that's more about the fabulous and ludicrous clothes. (I blame it on having had these paper dolls as a kid. Or what about the Italian futurists? DId they ever do portraits? I'm guessing no, since they were all about modernism and technology and movement, but I would be fascinated to see what someone like Boccione would do with a human subject. Besides, his color sense is so spectacular. I also like that none of these are what people would expect me to pick. I hate being predictable! I bet everyone would assume I'd say Judith Leyster, who would also do a wonderful portrait. Her self portrait painting is so joyful that who could resist?

I completely veto the following: Cranach (helllo, body dismorphia!), Brancusi (too minimalist), and de Kooning (too untidy)."

Tamara de Lempicka, Young Woman in Green, 1927

Judith Leyster, Self Portrait, 1635

Sarah B leaves medieval art out of the question for once and says:

"I would like either Matisse or Diebenkorn to paint my portrait.

Matisse: I love the way he juxtaposes many patterns or intense hues of colors in his interior spaces which surround his figures. (Though I don't love his odalisques)

Diebenkorn: Extraordinary color! And a wonderful simplification of complex forms with carefully placed brushstrokes of thick paint."

Henri Matisse, Madame Matisse: Madras Rouge, 1907

Richard Diebenkorn, Woman in Profile, 1958

And we're not done yet!