What is Your Favorite Classic Portrait?

[Spitfire]

As a great admirer of both Sophia Loren and the photographer Irving Penn, I have to mention this:

 

[Sertsa]

John Coltrane recording Blue Train. This was used as the album cover; there's something about the intensity of his expression.

Then there's Saul Bellow, and his gaze into the world:

And James Joyce practicing his other art form, also intense:

I guess I like candid / capture moment photos.

But speaking of intensity of expression, there's also... this:

(Ann Margaret)

(Edited because I remembered 'Trane went with "Train" for the album title).

 

[Dixon Cannon]

The one that started it all....

Philadelphia, November 1839. "Robert Cornelius, self-portrait facing front, arms crossed. Inscription on backing: The first light-picture ever taken. 1839." One of the first photographs made in the United States, this quarter-plate daguerreotype, taken in the yard of the Cornelius family's lamp-making business in Philadelphia, is said to be the earliest photographic portrait of a person.

-dixon cannon

 

[pigeon toe]

Wow, and what a handsome subject!

What can I say, I love Lucy.

 

[Imahomer]

Gee...
There are some real classics here. I, being a simple man, always think of the portrait of George Washington that used to hang in almost every classroom I've ever been in. I'd love to run across one of them.

 

[scotrace]

Interesting photo, Dixon. I've seen it but did not know the story.

A side photographic history note also: The very first photo was shot out the window of Louis Daguerre's flat, a street scene. I have always understood that the second thing to be photographed, once the process was proven to work, was a nude Parisian Prostitute!
Looking for a source of that....

 

[Inky]

So many wonderful portraits and photos here to enjoy!

Mine is not an "official portrait" but one of my favorite photos:

 

[dhermann1]

I believe there were early experiments with a process of photography that was not permament. The images lasted a few hours or days and then faded away. So these would be the first permament photographic images.
Imagine the frustration of being able to capture an image on paper, but then watch it slowly disappear.
Coo idea for a thread, Hem. Thanks.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Wow, and what a handsome subject!

Hey! Take a close look!...Tom Cruise could play him in the movie, "The Robert Cornelius Story"!

-dixon cannon

 

[bombayjack]

Herman Wouk. Not at all familiar with the man's works, but I love his photo.

Wow, that's Herman Wouk? He's one of my favorite writers. The Winds of War/War and Remembrance is my favorite historical fiction work of all time.

 

[THe Conductor]

Audrey Hepburn anyone:

http://www.artwallpapers.net/posters/images/audrey_hepburn_poster/12/audrey_hepburn_poster012.jpg

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Nancy Cunard the "Naughtiest Brightest Young Thing"

ttp://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3066/2460058600_617fe13626.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/confetta/2460058600/&usg=__LcnEyLqX5b70uIRo0G6yC4UuA14=&h=500&w=387&sz=121&hl=en&start=17&tbnid=vYeXW2VVseX_fM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnancy%2Bcunard%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Sorry this is better


http://images.google.com.au/imgres?...&prev=/images?q=nancy+cunard&gbv=2&hl=en&sa=G

 

[HadleyH]

There are so many portraits that i like... this is one of them, taken in 1922 by Man Ray, its a kind of stange surrealist photograph, the blurring ocurred by chance he liked it and left it like that! Afterwards, the marquise Casati said that the photo had captured her soul go figure... still, i find it so ahead of it's time...it has to be one of my favorites!

Marquise Casati

 

[Lefty]

+1 on Man Ray.

With celebrity portraits, you bring your impressions to the viewing. For that reason, I prefer unknown subjects, where the photographer is forced to do the work.

August Sander tells his audience so much about people that they will never meet.

My favorite artist is the Russian Constructivist, Alexander Rodchenko.
I have two of his prints from the original negatives, including this one, Pioneer Girl.

 

[carter]

Richard Blair 'Paddy' Mayne (1915-1955)
Lieutenant Colonel - Special Air Service (SAS)
DSO with 3 bars
French Legion d'honneur
French Croix de guerre and palm

http://www.blairmayneresearchsociety.com/paddy.htm
http://www.geocities.com/saspastandpresent/mayne.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Mayne
http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/United_Kingdom/SAS/Founding_Fathers.htm

 

[scotrace]

This is the Lincoln portrait most often sited for its drama, taken at the tiime of the Gettysburg address. And it is indeed intense and intimate. One of the greatest photographs of all time.

But I think I prefer this one.

It's the last known portrait of him, just a few days before his death. He is victorious against all odds, at peace with himself, even showing the trace of a smile as he personally rejoiced at the end of the bloodshed, and the end of slavery. But it just about killed him. The weariness is so very evident. This portrait hangs on the wall in my bedroom as a limited-edition print from the original glass negative, matted and framed for preservation.

By comparison, this was taken just before he left Springfield for Washington in 1861. It's only four years difference:

 

[Emer]

This one always hits me very deeply; John Jr. saluting his father's casket.

And of couse this one, showing the pure elation of vicotry.

 

[LadyStardust]

Eisenhower & paratroopers, D-Day

Greta Garbo

 

[rmrdaddy]

1958:

Great info and a zoom feature to see who's who at : http://www.harlem.org/index.html