Contemplating character: portrait drawings and oil sketches from Jacques-Louis David to Lucian Freud

Abstract

'Contemplating Character: Portrait Drawings and Oil Sketches from Jacques-Louis David to Lucian Freud' explores the evolution of portraiture from the end of the 18th century until the present. In contrast to portraiture as the tired flattery of the rich and powerful, the invigorating new movements of Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism that took hold of art at the end of the 18th century and into the 19th century were the result of a desire for a sense of "unvarnished truth", and a more honest and gritty incisiveness of depiction emerged. By the 20th century, the hallmark of the portrait was individuality; the sense of personality was primary, whether stylistically Post-Impressionist, Expressionist, Surrealist, or Realist.