Portraits of Famous American Women: An Analysis of Various Artists' Renderings of 13 Admired Figures

by Robert Henkes

The portrait is one of the most pure collaborative efforts in the art world. The artist is the creator, but she or he is wholly dependent on the sitter for inspiration and stimulus. When the subject is famous, the artist must often compromise true expression for the vanity of the person being painted. Though that would seemingly make the portrait less appealing artistically, in truth the collaborative nature of the portrait often makes it artistically unique, a blending of the artist's style with the desires of the sitter. This work takes a fresh look at the portraits of 13 American women (including Marian Anderson, Isadora Duncan, Harriet Tubman and Georgia O'Keeffe) and the artists who created them. In examining the work of such artists as Abraham Walkowitz, John Graham, Betsy Graves Reyneau, Michael Alexandr Werboff, and Brenda Putnam, one comes to see the unique combination of the personality of the sitter and the style of the artist.

170 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997