{"id":3903,"date":"2025-04-16T00:55:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T00:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/16\/an-insiders-guide-to-commissioned-portraiture\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T00:55:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T00:55:37","slug":"an-insiders-guide-to-commissioned-portraiture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/16\/an-insiders-guide-to-commissioned-portraiture\/","title":{"rendered":"An Insider\u2019s Guide to Commissioned Portraiture"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An exhibition of portraits by Y.Z. Kami. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian. Collection of the Whitney Museum of Art<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not long after President George W. Bush<\/a> left office, he and his wife were invited by old friends Annette and Harold Simmons<\/a> to dine at their home in Dallas. The dinner was in celebration of both Harold Simmons\u2019 successful kidney transplant and the Bushes\u2019 reemergence as private citizens and residents of the city, but the conversation turned to the nearby Southern Methodist University, where a school of education was being built and named for Annette (based on the Simmons\u2019 $20 million gift to the university in 2007) and where the former president was setting up a presidential library. Annette mentioned a portrait was being painted of her by John Howard Sanden<\/a>, which was to be displayed inside the education school, and that subject pricked the interest of the Bushes because they were looking for someone to paint his official White House portrait. President Bush asked her about Sanden, \u201cIs he easy to work with?\u201d and she offered profuse praise. Within a few weeks, a staffer in the Bush presidential library emailed Sanden about coming to meet the former president. The portrait he painted now hangs in the White House in the Great Hall where all the presidential portraits are displayed.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Is he easy to work with?\u2019 is not an artistic question, but it is likely to be a question on the minds of a lot of people who, for one reason or another, want a portrait painted, and it may mean a range of things: Will it take up a lot of my time? Will the artist take suggestions or make changes? The big muckamucks who get their portraits painted often are highly conscious of how they appear to other people, and they also may be used to giving orders they want obeyed. It\u2019s highly unlikely they\u2019re accustomed to artistic egos. Who is in charge of posterity anyway? The late artist Raymond Kinstler<\/a> claimed that one of his most difficult sitters was actress Katherine Hepburn<\/a> because \u201cshe was very opinionated. She had very strong ideas about her persona and questioned me about every brushstroke. I would carefully explain what I\u2019m doing, but at one point, she told me, \u2018You talk too much. Why don\u2019t you paint a little more?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Artists who accept commissions to paint portraits, no matter how esteemed they are in the realm of portraiture or in fine art generally, learn to put their egos aside. The sitter is always right, and they need to make life easy for that person. Grace DeVito<\/a>, a portrait painter in Stamford, Connecticut, learned that lesson early, while studying illustration at New York\u2019s School of Visual Arts and working as an illustrator for 11 years. \u201cYou work for an art director, and if he wants changes in the composition, okay, and if he wants different colors, okay,\u201d she told Observer.<\/p>\n

Changes in the illustration business that displeased her, particularly the trend toward creating everything digitally, led her to take a workshop with New York portrait artist Daniel Greene<\/a>, a class in portraiture with Greene\u2019s wife Wendy Caporale<\/a> and, eventually, a series of portrait art classes with Laurel Boeck<\/a>, after which portraiture became her career. Practicing at home meant posing her own children when they were young. \u201cThey were never happy to do it. There were a lot of bribes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portraiture is seldom an artist\u2019s first act<\/h3>\n

Portraiture is as old as art itself, but few painters start out as portraitists, though almost all receive considerable attention for the kind of realistic figurative work that\u2019s translatable into portraiture. There really aren\u2019t schools of portraiture, and most portrait artists did not study portraiture in school anyway. Instead, they tend to pick up techniques and ideas from observation and practice, sometimes attending non-degree ateliers that focus on drawing and painting the human figure. Raymond Kinstler began his artistic career as a comic book illustrator, later graduating to paperback book covers before moving on to nonillustrative subjects and portraiture, while portrait artist William Draper<\/a> painted combat scenes as well as portraits of Admirals Halsey and Nimitz (\u201cwon me a lot of attention\u201d) for the military during the Second World War.<\/p>\n

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Artist Grace DeVito. Courtesy Grace DeVito<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the years, DeVito has painted portraits of a state supreme court judge, the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the dean of a law school, various doctors and lawyers, as well as men, women, children and even pets, charging between $4,000 and $21,000 depending upon the medium (oil sketch or full oil painting) and the size of the artwork (full length, three-quarter-length, half-figure, head and shoulders and if hands are to be included in the image). If you want her to do your portrait, you can contact her directly or go through her agency, the Birmingham, Alabama-based Portraits, Inc., which works with dozens of portrait artists all over the country.<\/p>\n

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DeVito\u2019s self-portrait. Courtesy Grace DeVito<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The agency gets all manner of clients, according to executive partner Jennifer Grey<\/a>. \u201cFor family portraiture, sitters are typically younger children. We find ages 4-6 to be the most common age of sitter for family portraits. For institutional portraits, our most typical sitters are heads of corporations or academic leaders.\u201d The institutional clients generally get charged the most, with prices reaching $150,000. All clients pay an up-front nonrefundable fee of half the negotiated price, with the remainder paid on acceptance of the finished work. She added that the typical length of time for the completion of a portrait is nine to twelve months.<\/p>\n

Portraits, Inc. is the largest agency of its type, but it isn\u2019t the only way that prospective clients find portrait artists or, more broadly speaking, artists willing to do a portrait. Sharon Sprung<\/a>, a figurative painter who also does portraits, is usually contacted through her New York City gallery, Gallery Henoch. The gallery \u201ctypically\u201d receives \u201ca few requests for Sharon Sprung portraits each year. When requests seem appropriate, I pass them on to Sharon. She then decides whether she has the time and\/or inclination to accept them,\u201d George Schechtman<\/a>, the gallery\u2019s owner and director, told Observer.<\/p>\n

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Artist Sharon Sprung. Courtesy Sharon Sprung<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of those requests came from the White House, which commissioned Sprung to paint the official White House portrait of Michelle Obama<\/a>. \u201cThe Obamas looked through many artists\u2019 portfolios when they were trying to decide who would do their portraits,\u201d she said. Sprung hadn\u2019t submitted a portfolio to the White House Historical Association, which was founded by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy<\/a> in 1961 and is a privately chartered organization that quietly solicits money for fine and decorative art acquisitions, including official portraits, at the White House as well as any refurnishing, but \u201cthe Obamas were aware of my work,\u201d because she had painted portraits of certain members of Congress as well as deans and provosts at some universities.<\/p>\n

She got the call and met with the First Lady three times at the White House in January 2021. Michelle Obama \u201cdidn\u2019t have a lot of time to pose, because she was packing to leave the White House,\u201d and their conversations were brief as \u201cneither of us are that comfortable talking,\u201d but Sprung took photographs, mixed some colors on the spot to find a match for Mrs. Obama\u2019s skin tone and looked at the two dresses that the First Lady\u2019s stylists had chosen. \u201cI made the choice of which dress to show her in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sharon Sprung\u2019s painting of former Congresswoman Carolyn Mulroney. Courtesy Sharon Sprung<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many artists in this field view themselves as fine artists who also do portraits, while others almost exclusively are portraitists (or they may create fine art but earn most or all of their living from portraiture). Y.Z. Kami<\/a>, an Iranian-born artist who has lived in New York City since the 1980s, has had a different experience, earning a living early on as a portrait painter but increasingly creating works that, while looking like a portrait, are fine art pieces that he exhibits and sells via Gagosian. \u201cPeople ask at Gagosian if I would do their portrait, and I have done portraits of a few collectors of my paintings,\u201d he told Observer, but full-time portraiture now is in his rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n

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Artist Y.Z. Kami. Photo: Cesar Chavez Lechowick<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes, the fit between his fine art and commissioned portraiture is not as tight as collectors may want it to be. Kami noted that a collector of his paintings once came to his studio, seeking to have his portrait painted. \u201cI was working on a series of large paintings for a show at Gagosian in London\u2014they were all about eight-and-a-half feet high\u2014and told the guy that I would get to his painting after I was done with this series. His painting took me two or three months, and when I showed it to him, he said it was too big. That\u2019s just the way I was working at the time.\u201d That was the one and only portrait rejection he ever experienced, \u201cand I still have that work in my studio.\u201d Rejection really isn\u2019t something that exists in the fine arts\u2014prospective buyers are purchasing something they\u2019ve already seen\u2014but it does (or can) happen in the portraiture field. Artist Mary Qian<\/a> noted that last year a portraiture client was unhappy with the completed painting she had made. \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t really know the exact reason. The client decided that he didn\u2019t want a traditional portrait for some reason. I guess it\u2019s not for everyone.\u201d That\u2019s one of the reasons that portrait artists collect half of the total payment up-front so that their time isn\u2019t wasted fruitlessly.<\/p>\n

The portrait-making process, from bathrobes to backgrounds<\/h3>\n

It is very rare for a sitter to be painted on the spot these days. Typically, a portrait artist shows up to take photographs, find an appropriate background for the image (a library, a garden, etc.), choose clothing and learn more about the subject. When Sanden visited President Bush for the first time, the former president met him at the front door wearing a bathrobe. \u201cHe told me, \u2018I didn\u2019t know what to wear,\u2019\u201d so the two men walked down the hall to look through his closet, and \u201cI made the decisions about the suit,\u201d which is \u201ca middle-value gray suit, which was my preference, because a navy blue suit is not much fun to paint,\u201d although the former president picked the tie (\u201cit\u2019s not the one I would have wanted, but it\u2019s a color he wears a lot\u201d). President Bush told the artist, \u201cDon\u2019t make my painting bigger than my father\u2019s,\u201d which Sanden already knew. From FDR on, almost every White House presidential portrait is 50\u201d (tall) x 40\u201d (wide). He also didn\u2019t take any measurements of President Bush\u2019s head because \u201cevery head in that room is 10.\u201d White House presidential portraits are about tradition.<\/p>\n

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Y.Z. Kami, Isaac<\/em>. Courtesy of artist and Gagosian. Photo Serge Domingie<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The chatting is important, because the artist\u2019s goal is to get the subject to look animated. \u201cYou have to find ways to get them back to being the person who is going to be portrayed,\u201d portrait artist Marc Mellon<\/a> told Observer. A problem all portrait painters face is keeping their subjects alert during extended periods of posing. Gilbert Stuart<\/a>, renowned for his portraits of George Washington, wrote that \u201ca vacuity spread over his countenance\u201d as soon as Washington began to sit. Many portrait subjects are older people who may become sleepy if they are required to sit inactively for extended periods of time. Other subjects simply feel uncomfortable with someone looking directly and intently at them. Some just get bored.<\/p>\n

Knowing how to chat also helps these artists get business, and ambitious portrait artists tend to be social animals, attending parties where they might meet prospective patrons. \u201cI think it helps to be personable and go to parties and get introduced,\u201d Mellon said. \u201cThere was a client of mine who called me up and said that he was having a party. There were going to be some people there he\u2019d like me to meet; was I free to come? I said, \u2018Yes I am,\u2019 without looking at my calendar. It\u2019s just good business sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Warhol<\/a> was well known for attending parties of the rich and famous, working the room and often coming away with portrait commissions and new clients. Other artists host get-togethers in their studios. \u201cI like to hold a big party in the spring and invite everyone I know,\u201d Draper said. \u201cI don\u2019t think of it as business, although I do deduct it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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