1950s Signed Original Oil on Canvas. Depicts a young girl daydreaming, arms resting on an open book. Signed "Brunetti" lower left. Likely 1950s based on Grumbacher logo on back.

Overall: 22 3/4 X 18 3/4 in. 

Sight: 15 1/2 X 11 1/2 in. 

#2784 . 

A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant, and can be represented as just the face, half the body, and even full body. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot or candid image, but a composed view of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the sculptor, painter or photographer, to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer, but a portrait can be represented as a profile from various angles. Plastered human skulls were facial reconstructions that were made in the ancient Levant between 9000 and 6000 BC in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. They represent some of the oldest forms of art in the Middle East and demonstrate that the prehistoric population took great care in burying their ancestors below their homes, as well as denoting some of the earliest sculptural examples of portraiture in the history of art. Most early representations of individuals depict kings, emperors, and other rulers, and tend to follow idealizing artistic conventions of their time rather than the specific features of the subject’s body, although given the lack of other evidence as to the ruler’s appearance the degree of idealization can be hard to assess. Some of the earliest surviving painted portraits of people who were not rulers are the Greco-Roman funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypt’s Faiyum district. These are almost the only paintings from the classical world that have survived, apart from frescos, though many sculptures and faces on coins have fared better. The art of portraiture appears to have first flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture. The Dark and early Middle Ages were a time of idealization, and true portraits of the outward appearance of individuals re-emerged in the late Middle Ages in tomb monuments, patron or donor portraits, miniatures in illuminated manuscripts and then panel paintings. One of the best-known portraits in the Western world is Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Mona Lisa.” When the artist creates a portrait of themselves, it is called a “self-portrait.” The first identifiable self-portrait was by the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten’s personal sculptor Bak, who carved a representation of himself and his wife Taheri in roughly 1365 BC. Portrait photography has been a lucrative commercial industry all over the world since the process became widespread, and provides some of the best evidence of past events, people, and societal norms available. To this day, the painting of a portrait or sculpting of a bust is still considered a valuable art form by government officials, sports organizations, and well-off families alike as a way of preserving their images for posterity.