What are the main reasons for creating portraits, and what can we learn about portraits in general from looking in detail at one portrait?

Information 

Portraits are created for various reasons. Sometimes it is possible for us to guess why a portrait was created by merely looking at it. The reasons for creating portraits, as well as the techniques used, can of course change over time.

Discuss the following reasons for creating portraits:

• To create a record of what a person looks like: before the era of photography and film, a painting or statue was a means of creating a permanent record of what a person looked like, and by today, photographic portraits fulfil this task.

• To express the importance and status of a person: many portraits portray important people, and it is often the person represented in the painting, statue or photograph that pays for its creation.

• To record a person at work: for example a scientist, archdruid, politician, headmaster, footballer etc. being portrayed wearing clothes that represent their work.

• For official reasons: for a driving licence, work card, or when someone is arrested.

• For economic reasons: in the past artists would travel from one stately home to another looking for the opportunity to produce portraits, and were paid for this work. In the same way today, street artists in some cities are paid to produce portraits, and photographers take pictures of celebrities andfamous people in order to sell them.

Describing the photograph

1.    What is in the photograph?
2.    Why was the photograph taken?
3.    Is it an interesting photograph?
4.    Is it a colour or black and white photograph?
5.    When was the photograph taken?

Describing the person in the photograph

1.    How old is the person?
2.    What is he wearing?
3.    What is his mood?
4.    Are there any other clues in the photograph suggesting who the person might be?
5.    Is there anything in the background?

Analyzing the person in the photograph

1.    Does the individuals’ posture say anything about him?
2.    How does the person in the photograph feel?
3.    How does this make you feel?
4.    Is the photographer trying to portray something about the sitter?
5.    Does the person and photograph appeal to you?

Information about the person in the photograph

The photograph is of R. S. Thomas (1913-2000), a famous Welsh poet and priest who wrote in the English language. His poetry is well-known at an international level, and in 1996 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He produced over twenty volumes of poetry, emcompassing the themes of religion, nature and Welsh national culture.

Thomas enjoyed living and working in the countryside, and spent his whole career as a clergyman, based in rural parishes in Wales.  He had strong opinions about a number of issues.  He was an earnest supporter of the Welsh language and nationhood, with a deep resentment of the anglicisation of Wales. He was also a pacifist, and actively supported the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, speaking at rallies and often writing letters to the press.

He is remembered as one of the greatest writers of poetry in English in the second half of the 20th century.

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