Artsology

Portraiture in Different Eras

We've got a small group of portraits here, ranging from the 1400's up to 2009, and it's easy to see how different the people and their clothing look at different times in history. Scroll down for more ...

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Here's the first two portraits we want to showcase and discuss. Below left: Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Youth, 1481, and below right: Frans Hals, Isabella Coymans, 1650.

Portraits painted by Sandro Botticelli and Frans Hals

What may look odd or stuffy to us in either of these portraits above probably looked very normal to the people at the time that each of these were painted. In the same way, the man in Kehinde Wiley's portrait from 2009 (below, far right), with a Yankees hat and plaid shirt, looks very normal to us now.

Here we have, from left: Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Olga, 1917; Joel Sternfeld, Investment Banker at home, Malibu, California, 1988; and Kehinde Wiley, After El Greco's (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) The Annunuciation, from 2009.

Portrait painting by Pablo Picasso, Photograph by Joel Sternfeld, and painting by Kehinde Wiley

But we want to know: what do you think portraiture will look like in 2100? Will people still be taking photographs or making oil paintings then? Or will portraits be 3-D holograms or something futuristic like that? Here's a couple ideas for futuristic portraits below. Why don't you create your own vision of a futuristic portrait and send it to us - we'll create a gallery of your ideas!

3 concepts for futuristic portraits of the year 2100