Timeline Of Portraiture

In this post I will be doing an overview of how portraiture has changed throughout time from the 1400s to modern day. Mediums, size, and positions have all changed drastically over 600 years.

1400s

24

Geoffery Chaucer
-unkown artist
-after 1400




































1500s

25

Elizabeth of York 
- unknown artist
- 1500

26

Thomas Wentworth , 1st Baron Wentworth
- unknown artist       -1449-1450

1600s

27

Queen Elizabeth I
- Unknown English artist
- 1600

28

Thomas Killigrew
- William Sheppard
- 1650 





































1700s

29

Sarah Churchill (Duchess of Marlborough)
- Sir Godfrey Kneller
-1700

30

            
































Rhoda Lady Astley
-Arthur Pond
-1750





































1800s

31

Jem Bletcher
- Unknown artist
-1800

32

                                    





































Sir Francis Beaufort
- Stephen Pearce
- 1850

































1900s

33

Lytton Stratchy
- Dora Carrington
- 1916

34

Anna Zinkiesen
- Anna Zinkiesen
- 1944






































As can be seen from these portraits, between 1400-1900 portraiture did not change too drastically. Most of the portraits are very regal and poised with not much emotion to them. They are oil and the majority are on canvas. The depth of the portraits does seem to have improved over time making them looks more realistic as time progressed. After 1900 the portraits are obviously more modern in their appearance and are often more abstract as attitudes towards art began to change and the class system began to break down throughout the 20th Century. It is interesting to see that in the centuries where monarchs were the leading influence of the day and society was very regimented portraiture remained relatively constant.