As Brehmer profoundly points out, “Portraiture is the only art form that exists out of a dependency on human exchange and models the struggles and pleasures of human relationships as a subtext to its surface desire to represent.” Indeed, portraits encapsulate a moment in time forever such as Picasso’s portrait of Getrude Stein. Life is short for humankind, but any photograph or artwork may capture the special quality and aura during an important time period that defines the individual and his surroundings. It may not tell us the whole truth, but it is enough to engage the viewer to ponder deeply on his or her characteristics. What I also took from Brehmer’s Every Portrait Tells a Lie, is that time is a precious commodity, especially in the modern era. Students have to manage their time wisely for exams, occupations, and social life. Athletes and artists alike must spend a majority of their career perfecting their talents to strive for greatness. Time will never stop, but portraits allow us to look back and reflect upon the moments that we cherish.
Casper Goodrich by Sargent
In Sarah Churchwell’s How John Singer Sargent made a scene, many more interesting facts about Sargent were revealed. Some of the more striking qualities about him is that he liked to do many activities while he painted great works such as walking around for “four miles” from his model and easel, and playing the piano or tennis. He also tried to capture en plein air, the transient quality of “fugitive evening light” when he painted. I felt this is similar to how Frans Hals painted when he was drunk. It is really interesting how certain cues in the surroundings of an artist sparks even greater landscapes of creativity. What was unnerving about Sargent’s life was how society critiqued him after spending much thought and imagination into his masterpieces. Sargent was also “married” in a sense to his artistic ability and painting, and it was depressing how he did not maintain any stable relationships. His personal life seemed to be very mysterious, and many of his private papers were destroyed. His own self-portrait seems to generate ambition and a headstrong demeanor.
Hearing what you said about Sargent’s weird habits, I wonder what you find is one of the cues that sparks you to be even more creative, or productive? I also find it interesting that you find that portraiture is able to sum up a scene. It is very understandable, and useful, to use portraiture to look back and see how much has changed since then. In a way portraiture can depict the everlasting evolution of the world we live in today.
Hello Anthony, aspects of your analysis of the essays were similar to mine. The idea that you pointed out, ” Time will never stop, but portraits allow us to look back and reflect upon the moments that we cherish,” is interesting to think about because time moves unrelentingly fast and we sometimes forget the journey that we have been on, our journey. Your comment that our time on this Earth is short but portraits and pictures are forever led me to think abstractly about how we remember someone by the face we see in a portrait and this hinders our ability to see the m different faces that person may have had in his life, meaning how they looked as a child, and then young adult, and so on. I don’t know why but George Washington popped into my head and the only portrait I have seen of him is when he was very old, I never wondered until now how he looked as a child or teen or anything.
Hi Anthony, I absolutely agree with your idea that time has become a precious commodity. We only have 24 hours in a day to do both what we have to do, and what we want to do. It is so important that we divide our day in a way that is conducive to our goals, Especially now that we’re college students and our workload is more than it has ever been before.
Part of Sargent’s life is mysterious. I’m really tempted to find out what his life was like “behind the scenes.” Without them, I feel as though we lost connection with the painter. It’s not uncommon for artist to base their paintings on life experience, so his journals or life recordings outside of work should tell us more about what kind of artist he is. However, I do not blame him for keeping his life secretive. People in the past weren’t necessarily the accepting type.
Although I do not particularly enjoy taking photos, when I look back at old photos, I find those photos very precious because it allows me to return to a state that I am no longer in, so I completely agree that time needs to be treasured. I also like how you incorporated a good amount of both readings into your response, since I focused mainly on one of the readings. It is also notable how you mentioned that although Sargent is not married to a person, he is married to his art. I think that most people in the world are married to something whether it be the person he/she loves, their hobby, or something abstract but people tend to associate marriage more to a bond between people rather than objects.