What is a Portrait

In these paintings, artists may depict a figure or many figures in one painting in different ways. The most popular genre of human paintings is portrait painting. Portrait painting is a type of genre where the manifestation of artistic expression focuses on depicting the characteristics of a human subject in full.The intention of the painter is to embody the subject as if it were real. Artists specializing in portrait painting try to capture the likeness, personality, mood and even the social class of the subject in question. Mostly artists try to create a link between the person viewing the portrait and its subject. Human subjects are painted in a manner that they seem to directly stare at the viewer. This enables the viewer to engage with the subject and enable them to discern as many characteristics as possible out of the painting. Portrait paintings always depict subjects in a still position. However, portrait paintings differ on the size and the length of the body they decide to capture in their paintings. Portraits are usually representation of important individuals in the life of artists or the society. Sometimes, portrait paintings have been used to represent powerful individuals like rulers. Portrait painting is the oldest genre of painting that depict human subjects. As early as the Egyptian time, portraits were painted representing important people like kings and nobles. With time, portrait paintings have evolved and taken different representation, interpretation and forms. Currently, many countries have an official portrait of the leader that is used nationwide. Some of the portraits painted by famous artists include. Three Studies of Lucian Freud painting by Francis Bacon painted in 1969, Portrait of a Lady painting of 1760-70 by Francois Boucher, and Portrait of Madame De Nittis painting by Edgar Degas painted in circa 1872.Three Studies of Lucien Freud painting is one of the many portrait paintings painted by the British painter Francis