For as long as we have made art there have been portraits but the portrait we know today derives from a European tradition that began in the 12th century as a means of glorifying the rich and powerful. Later it began to flourish among the merchant class and by the 1400s portraiture had become its own genre.

After the Renaissance, painters began to take an interest in portraits of the common man – emphasizing quiet humanity and details of everyday life. By Rembrandt’s time it was about who you were as an individual, rather than who you were by birth.

Even the advent of photography failed to diminish the primacy of the painted portrait and, while tastes have come and gone over 500 years, the portrait has maintained its place as the pinnacle of an artist’s skill. 

A well-executed portrait possesses a timelessness and intimacy that simply cannot be captured by the click of a camera shutter. It can only be truly achieved by a painter spending many hours studying the subject and utilizing all their skills and sensibilities to evoke the subject’s inner essence – not just a literal likeness. In a great portrait, nothing is temporary, fleeting or accidental.

“…a lot of people say, ‘Why not get a photograph of the person?’ Photography is wonderful and it is an art form in itself, but… portraits are a culmination of elements… a truer image of a person than just the ‘click’ of a snapshot.”