COMPOSITION
even a small preparatory oil study will
ensure the success of the painting.2
SIZE
How large will you depict the
head comparative to the
subject? Traditionally, most heads
in a formal portrait are around
three-quarter life size. That means
that the head in the painting
composition is approximately the
length of a large adult hand. This
standard size has been very common
for larger-scale portraits, but the head
size can also range from very small to
beyond life size.
The size of your support can
depend on this decision. Small, alla
prima portrait studies and copies of
master portraits are often somewhere
between about 12 and 28cm wide.
This scale accommodates a variety of
small to three-quarter life size head
studies or even full body preparatory
oil sketches. A 16x20” canvas
(51x41cm) easily accommodates ahead, neck and upper torso. It was
common for 19th-century portrait
painters such as John Singer Sargent
to make head studies for a larger
portrait and very small generalised
studies of a full-figure portrait on a
panel to preview the whole
composition, colour and value without
any detail. If the three-quarter life-size
format is to be used, the size of the
canvas must be enlarged as more of
the figure is included in the
composition.
Modern standard canvas sizes for
torso-length portraits range from
18x24” (46x61cm) to 30x40”
(76x102cm). The size of the canvas in
a three-quarter life-size format goes
up for the composition as more ofthePaul Gauguin, Two Women, 1901 or ’02,
oil on canvas, 74x92cm
The horizontal format is less common in the history of
western portraiture, but here it allows for the inclusion of
a landscape setting. This composition is an interesting
study in the symbolism, evoked both by the intimacy of
the two women as well as their age differences.
THE WALTER H AND LEONORE ANNENBERG COLLECTION, GIFT OF WALTER H AND LEONORE ANNENBERG, 1997, BEQUEST OF WALTER H ANNENBERG, 2002. THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, USA