apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I once kept a portrait in my bathroom and she was always looking over my shoulder through the wall mirror as I brushed my teeth. Eventually, I had to take her down.

Now, hanging in my bedroom I have a beautiful portrait named 'The Hat' because the female has over forty birds sitting on her head. I love that portrait but it is easier to do so because it is not so obviously a real person - more of an ideal.

Your friend's argument is a rather odd one, I must say. I think we invite strangers' faces into our homes through, say, the television all the time. What I do find interesting, though, is that most people do tend to select human faces that only make them feel comfortable in the home. Not faces that seem angry or aggressive or otherwise project negative energy. And so I think the role of most portraiture in the home is to be pure decoration and not 'art'.

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Controversy in home decor. What's your feeling about provocative works in your home: http://onegrandhome.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/controversial-home-decor/

This may sound conceited, but and I would never have thought about the question unless it were asked, but I would be likely to have a print of a fine art portrait, such as a Chardin, but less likely to have an original artwork unless it represented a friend or relative. I might also have a portrait of an historical figure, perhaps an etching or lithograph or ten. And, I do own a few old Vanity Fair prints.

I love photos and would probably feel comfortable using them with the same general guidelines. Except that I would also display them if I had taken them. I definitely wouldn't display older or antique photos if I weren't related. Seeing antique photos or dagguereotypes at flea markets breaks my heart. I want to track down family members and pass them on!

Hmm, that's a good question. I would probably hang a stranger's portrait if there was another element to it - an interesting scene, or twist, rather than a straight-up portrait.

I am longing to have portraits of family/friends to hang though.

1GH is right. And it is human nature to enjoy looking at other people's faces, whether we know them or not. We do it casually all the time. And faces become etched into our memories, whether or not they're captured in photographs or sketches or paintings. If it's weird to the author's friend, perhaps she would be happier if everyone was covered up under burqas as they went about their lives.

My bigger issue with this post is how some of the art is hung. Really? A portrait over the sink in a bathroom? I cannot imagine ever not wanting a mirror. (Not that I like my own face more than anyone else's, but seeing as I am responsible for it...)

It freaks me out.

It really depends on the nature of the medium. For example, I have no problem with photographic portraits of strangers (I would dearly love to have one or more Sally Manns for example), but wonder whether I would feel the same about an painted family portrait of someone I didn't know.

I have always wanted a pair of historic husband and wife portraits, and have wondered whether I would feel funny hanging portraits of strangers in my house. I hope that wouldn't stop me from buying them, if I ever found a pair I could afford.

I collect daguerrotypes, all strangers, and find that they seem to be happier surrounded by others of their ilk...

Maybe the answer is if you have a house with a few paintings of strangers, it becomes a theme, and thus more comfortable...

I collect oil portraits and never thought about it being weird to have them hanging in our house until a Danish friend commented on it. She thought only family portraits should be hung at home. I think they're art no matter who the subject is. I just love the look of them.

I also have photos of anonymous people displayed with family photos simply because I like them as art.

Cindy Sherman isn't a relative of mine, but I'd be happy to have her self-portraits on my wall!

I don't care terribly much for portraits, period. Well, okay, we have a few family pics but they're small enough that you can't really see them until you're up close. Call me a recluse but I don't want a lot of random people in my house all the time.

And definitely not in the bathroom. I don't want them staring at me while I'm brushing my teeth, or getting out of the shower, or in some even more compromising position.

I have two wonderful portraits of people that I don't know. I dreamt about one of them from the day I saw it until I bought the painting. There was just something so wonderful about the way she stared out at me with all that youthful attitude. I have moved to Zurich recently and cannot wait to get them up on my walls when the new flat is ready.

How strange. I would never have thought that portraits of unknown people would be so controversial. Very interesting. They don't bother me a bit. I love looking at people's faces. I would SO take a photo of a stranger on the metro and put it up in my house. None of it creeps me out in the least... unless the people in the images themselves are creepy. Would probably prefer not to have photos of malicious or scary looking people staring down. People with strong attitude, yes. People who look like they want to stab me when I turn my back, no.

I've sat frequently for a friend who teaches portrait drawing/painting. When she had an art sale, I discovered all of "my" paintings had already been sold. At the time, I thought it was weird, but then I realized there are several portraits she has done that I am mesmerized by each time I see them and would gladly buy (if I could afford them).

Off the subject a bit but I will never forget stopping in at my brother's friends house on our way to Lake Powell in Las Vegas. This house was one of the total bachelors houses with all his toys in the front yard- boats, motorcycles, couple of beefy cars you get the picture..I remember walking into his house and smack down the fist thing you see was a huge professionally painted large oil painting of his dog over the mantle..don't get me wrong I have always wanted a portrait done of my dog because he has the best face.. but this was just so cheesy. The dog was a sheep dog like the one in show "Please don't Eat the Daisies" he was very proud of this painting it was almost old masters style yet of the goofy looking dog with tongue hanging out.

I Man Ray's self-portrait and he is not smiling.

This is an odd argument. What about reproductions of famous portraits? Can't art be enjoyed for its own sake? Why does it have to have some connection to the inhabitant beyond aesthetic appreciation?

Wonderful post!

I bought a portrait of a lady, painted in the 60's, at an estate sale last summer ($10!!)

Anyhow... I showed my kids and they said "She looks EVIL".

My mom also commented "Ya, she looks a bit evil".

And then, while I was cleaning off the frame outside on the porch, the painting blew off the table and sliced a giant cut into my mom's leg. She now has a scar there!

So now the portrait hangs lovingly in our upstairs hallway. My son was inspired by the Evil lady and wrote me a comic book for my birthday called "The Cursed Painting" based on a true life story.

Its kind of neat how a portrait of some lady we don't even know already has another story to go with it.

Fine for others, but I don't (to date anyway) really care for them myself. I have enough problems committing to any particular art in my own space and committing to a portrait is even worse - it's like committing to a person. A big step.

i think portraits that are highly stylized are great, where it lends more to the artist than the person being painted. Unless its an iconic figure...stylized portraits, ones that signify beauty can be amazing in any room.

I recently bought a portrait because I had a strong emotional reaction to it:

http://www.parishotelboutique.com/store/product1423.html

and then realized that I knew the woman somehow, it was an echo of my aunt from that era, and my very first memory is of her holding me when I was 4 or 5 months old. She looked and dressed exactly like that picture. So, stranger? Maybe, but, I like to think it's my aunt who sat for a portrait. Now... where to put her? Perhaps staring straight at the guests seated at the dining table? Creep them out, just a bit?

glad I'm not the only one slightly freaked out by portraits. My dad was a decent hobby painter and did mostly portraits, but I only have his still life and landscapes. His portraits did typically end up looking like people in our lives, many like our old bearded handyman, who was a nice man but the pictures turned out quite sinister and scared my friends who would come visit.

I just prefer landscapes and buildings on my walls

Rucy that is a beautiful painting. She has great things I have bough from her before.

So long as clowns aren't the subject, I dig 'em.

Seaside -- haa! you just made me laugh. I totally agree, clowns, especially in portrait form, very creepy

I'd much rather have portraits of strangers than portraits of my family.

a. I'd notice the flaws in the representation, and it would really, really irk me.
b. I see my family enough, thank-you-very-much! I don't need my Mom staring judgmentally at me in my own home, that's why I moved out!

I love old photographs of people I don't know. I love to wonder about them.

I don't think it's weird at all! When they're strangers you can make up funny stories about the people.

Like, "Oh, her? That's Great Aunt Myrna. She left her millions to her favorite pet parrot!"

I collect vintage group photos--prior to WWII. I'd be interested in fine art portraits--Rembrandt, Van Gogh, sure. But most of the stuff you see at 2nd hand stores and yard sales isn't fine art. Amateur art--portraits or landscapes or still life--needs to be pretty good for me to want to own it. None of the paintings here appeal to me.

I too would rather have photos of strangers hung around my house than of family and friends. I have a large print of a photo I took at the ocean several years back with dozens of strangers in mid-swim. My all time favorite unknown picture is of a couple having lunch on a sail boat. I bought it in a charity shop in Stockholm and it's hung above my bed since. To me, it's much more intriguing to imagine the lives behind the subjects (particularly if they're now deceased). Group shots of my family and friends are better left on the fridge or my desk.

LoriSF, thanks, wouldn't you just LOVE to go shopping alongside her someday? She really finds some wonderful local stuff!

I'm stealing this idea. I'm heading to an antique store right now....

I don't mind vintage stranger portraits - they're beautiful and there's a mystery and history element to them. You're left pondering who the person was and what kind of life that person had.

Debbie
http://girlwhimsy.blogspot.com

would your friend say that the mona lisa is creepy and that she wouldn't have it hanging in her house?

I have a portrait of myself up and THAT feels weird.

Seaside, so true! There is a great antique store near where I live and I had to stop going because the owner one day acquired SIX clown portraits and scattered them around the store. I never knew where I'd see one gazing out at me in all its creepy glory. The owner has my number--I told her to call me when they were all gone and then I'd come back. Needless to say, there does not seem to be a big market for clown portraiture and it's been two years.

Portraits are great conversation pieces for creative minds. Imagine inheriting a huge, gaudily framed portrait of a female Flamenco dancer. My friend Paul did, years ago! His 'fun name' for her was "the blue bitch". She hung conspicuously opposite the entrance, like a gate keeper or bouncer!

I don't have any portraits hanging up but I have one I wouldn't mind having up if I ever got around to framing it. It's one I took in high school of a small child. She was at the creek by the mission and just looked so solemn. I love it. I don't see any reason not to have strangers hanging on my walls so long as the portrait speaks to me in some way. If they can speak to me, they can't be that much of a stranger anyway, right?

definitely would prefer portraits of strangers (& we have a few up) to portraits of us or family members, friends. it would freak me out to have a portrait of myself hanging on my wall. my parents have a portrait of themselves up but it's handing with family photos so i can take that.

Gotta love a friend who makes us doubt what we love.

I have heard the same argument that portraits are extremely personal... so are many things in life like masks, religious icons (from religions other than our own), and antiques that are special because they belonged to someone else, but we still continue to enjoy them.

Hang the portraits in your home and enjoy your love of the human face and your imagination of what these people were like in life... as they bring life to you and your home.

We have an old pastel portrait of a woman (unknown to us) hanging in our dining room. I keep intending to make up a story about her for when people ask if it's one of our ancestors.

my living room is covered in portraits of strangers in the salon style. i'd say about 90% are of men in random sizes, frames and styles. i really like the look of "strangers" in my house. one day the oil painting of me will hang in a 20 something hipsters house. so the whole thing comes full circle...

When I was in high school (WAY back when) I really disliked art with any signs of man in it. Big into landscapes that were pure nature, no buildigns, no roads. I have no idea why I felt that way then.

Then I went to art school and learned to broaden my horizons and now I love all sorts of art, including portraits. I don't much care for the 16th century realistic portraits, though -- I prefer more impressionistic or stylized faces. I'm trying to remember if in my "salon style" collection I have any now. I have a few figure studies, but I don't recall any portraits at the moment, but that's mainly because I haven't run into any in my bargain shopping that I needed to own. yet.

They could be your long lost "relatives"....lol.

I don't own any portraits, but it wouldn't bother me if I did. It would depend on the expression and the overall look of the face. If I saw something that really caught my eye, I'd probably buy it. It can be a sort of connection somehow. I did buy, a few years back ,an old framed family photograph...really because of the frame. It looked like it was taken in the 1920's. The more I looked at the photo, the more engaging it became. My imagination started in how each member related to each other...a brother or sister getting along?..or not? Mother and father, what did he do?... was she the glue that held the family together? It was interesting.