Portrait Curriculum 1

• “Overused” portraits that you see over and over again everywhere.
• With portraits being such an immense subject, our video is a tiny fraction of what’s out there.
• The is a lot of overlap in the categories presented in the slideshows, many portraits fit in more than 1 category.
• Rembrandt did more self-portraits than any artist, painting several each year of his life resulting in a lifetime of portraits
• Portrait commissions are when a client hires an artist to create a portrait, usually for people in high society or positions of power.
• The Obama portraits were bold commissions that broke from the tradition of stale, realistic presidential portraits.
• Editorial portraits are seen in magazines, online publications, newspapers.
• Portraits in publications are commissioned by an art director and generally have a lot more creative freedom in image and vision.
• Portraits of famous people are perceived differently as you are likely viewing the portrait with prior knowledge of the person.
• Self-Portraits are a “rite of passage” for many artists and have potential for deep reflection and exploration of identity.
• Surrealistic portraits provide the opportunity to create fantastical worlds.

• Religious portraits were often portraits commissioned by the church.
• Other religious portraits can be comments and interpretations on spirituality or a response to the history of religious art.
• Family portraits provide a look at the dynamics between the family members, as well as a depiction of specific time periods, culture, and class.
• Portraits of everyday people are important images that capture time period through context, clothing, and more.
• Fictional characters from literature, mythology, folklore are continually being interpreted throughout the centuries and years.
• Portraits of fictional characters have a familiarity in that they have a narrative many people know.
• Portraits of anonymous people, where their identity is intentionally withheld can be powerful statements of groups of people.
• Removing the eyes from a portrait is a common way to show anonymity in a portrait.
• Allegorical and symbolic portraits are when portraits represent abstract ideas or become metaphors.

Full Curriculum

Overview · Portrait 1 · Portrait 2

• Frida Kahlo
• Chuck Close
• Pablo Picasso
• Vincent van Gogh
• Rembrandt
• Nelson Shanks
• John Singer Sargent
• Robert Hunt
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• Albrecht Dürer
• Cindy Sherman
• Omar Rayyan
• Anita Kunz
• Margaret Keane
• Junji Ito
• Lucas Cranach the Elder
• Joy Labinjo
• Francisco Goya
• Vashti Harrison
• Auguste Edouart
• Lotte Reiniger
• Jon Key
• Ronald Jackson
• Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart
• Afsoon
• Paula Rego

• Kerry James Marshall
• Diego Velázquez
• Kehinde Wiley
• Amy Sherald
• Frank Gallo
• George Catlin
• Broobs
• Rich Pellegrino
• Will Cotton
• František Kupka
• Jan Van Eyck
• Marc Quinn
• Yūkan Mitsuyasu
• Leonora Carrington
• Michelangelo
• Barry Moser
• Manuel Filipe
• Wei Leng Tay
• Edward Curtis
• Théodore Géricault
• Taj Rust
• Catherine Opie
• Somaya Critchlow
• Abdullah Al Saab
• Victoria Villasana
• Marly Gallardo
• Diane Victor
• Jenny Saville

• Dadu Shin
• Ralph Steadman
• Kadir Nelson
• Tim O’Brien
• Alice Neel
• Höchst Manufactory
• Roberto Lugo
• Elizabeth Peyton
• Brian Britigan
• Claude Cahun
• Anh Duong
• Maia Kobabe
• Bill Plympton
• Brooke DiDonato
• Lorna Simpson
• Jan Švankmajer
• Renee Cox
• Russell Drysdale
• Cornelis de Vos
• Zhang Xiaogang
• Dorothea Lange
• Alan Lee
• Houra Yaghoubi
• Jonathan Viner
• Maqbool Fida Husain
• Gabriela Alemán
• Lalla Essaydi
• Joiri Minaya