Portrait Art: Nineteenth Century
History, Characteristics of 19th-Century Romantic, Realist, Plein Air Portraiture.

Portrait of a Kleptomaniac (1820)
by realist Theodore Gericault.

19th Century Portraits

Portrait art in the nineteenth century encompassed several different styles, each reflecting part of the political jigsaw of the period.

The style of Romanticism attracted artists who wanted to liberate art from old fashioned values; the Academic style was embraced by those who favoured the cultural status quo - notably in England by followers of Joshua Reynolds (1723-92): see also English Figurative Painting 18th/19th century - while on the Continent Realism reflected the new industrialization and its effects on rural communities. Plein air painting was influenced by the Romantics and paved the way for Impressionism.

Portrait of Isaac Levitan (1893)
By Valentin Serov, one of the
great Russian portraitists.

Daughters of Edward Darley Boit
(1882) (detail) by John Singer Sargent.

WORLD'S TOP PORTRAITISTS
For the greatest portrait painters
see: Best Portrait Artists.

BEST PORTRAITS
For a list of the Top 50 Portraits
see: Greatest Portrait Paintings.

Romantic Portraits

Romantic artists pursued self-expression, favouring a dramatic, emotional and heroic style. Evocative treatment of light, vigorous brush strokes and inspirational content were other hallmarks of Romantic portraiture. The Spanish artist Francisco de Goya began as a Neo-Classicist but turned towards Romanticism in portraits such as: The Nude Maja (La maja desnuda) (1800), and the extraordinary Saturn Devouring His Son (1821). Theodore Gericault was noted for his images of mental patients, such as: Portrait of a Kleptomaniac (1819) and Portrait of a Woman Addicted to Gambling (1822); Eugene Delacroix, the leader of French Romanticism, used bold colours as well as a dashing style which echoed the Old Masters like the Venetian colourist Titian and the great Baroque portraitist Rubens. Romanticism spawned the Pre-Raphaelite style of art, exemplified by the allegorical portraits of Dante Gabriel Rossetti like Lady Lillith (1868) and Proserpine (1882). Two other notable English portrait painters of the Victorian era were the Symbolist artist GF Watts and the more classical Alfred Stevens.

CATEGORIES OF ART
For a guide to the different forms
of fine and applied arts,
please see: TYPES OF ART.

Realist-Style Portraiture

Realist portrait painters depicted a wide variety of ordinary people in undramatic settings, often using a restricted subtle palette of subdued colours. James McNeill Whistler painted numerous such works, including: Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (1871). The farmer's son Jean-Francois Millet focused on rural life in his series of genre-portraits, such as: The Sower (1850) and The Angelus (1857). The leader of the French Realism school was Gustave Courbet, one of the first artists to build up a thick impasto of pigment with a palette knife. His genre-portraits included: The Painter's Studio: A Real Allegory (1855). Honore Daumier, dubbed 'the greatest nineteenth century caricaturist' created numerous portraits (in the form of drawing, watercolours and prints) of French men and women living under a corrupt regime. His supreme figure drawing and figure painting demonstrates a mastery of facial expressions. Ilya Repin, the great Russian realist portrait artist painted Dukes, famous people and peasants.

Academic Portraiture

Harking back to Neo-Classicism and the Renaissance, Academic painting declined throughout the nineteenth century. Three of its finest exponents were John Singer Sargent, whose masterpieces included The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882) and Madame X (1884), Thomas Eakins and Sir William Orpen. The pre-Impressionist Edouard Manet, an important influence in late nineteenth century Paris, leaned towards Classicism in his famous picture Olympia (1863).

Plein Air

Barbizon plein-airism, the outdoor style of painting which inspired famous artists like Claude Monet, is exemplified by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot. Predominantly a landscape artist, his portrait work included the masterpiece: Woman With a Pearl (1869), whose composition is based on Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece, The Mona Lisa (1503).

The next article covers Impressionist Portraiture.

• For Expressionist portraiture, see: Expressionist portraits.
• For Surrealism/Pop portraiture, see: Surrealist/Pop Art portraits.
• See also: Portraits by Picasso, and 20th Century portrait artists.
• For info about portraiture in Ireland, see: Irish Portrait Artists.
• For more about the different types of painting (portraits, landscapes, still-lifes etc) see: Painting Genres.
• For more about 19th century portraiture, see: Art Encyclopedia.