Oil painting on canvas depicting a portrait of a man with long brown hair, a brown mustache and small pointy brown beard. He is dressed in a red outfit with an elaborate white collar and a gold medallion hanging around his neck with a wide blue ribbon. On either side of the man, he appears again, one facing the right and once facing the left. He wears the same outfit but in pale purple and dark blue. All three versions of the man are depicted against the grey stormy background.

Anthony van Dyck, Charles I in Three Positions, 1635-1636. Oil on canvas. Royal Collection.

Reader question: “Why are portraits so important in art history? And even in museums today, some which are dedicated to portraits (like the National Portrait Gallery in London)? To me, portraits are not aesthetic or interesting, so I’m interested in your opinion on what we could appreciate about them.”

Why are portraits important? I guess it depends on how you define ‘important’, but as you said, it’s obvious that portraits are a staple of art history, with entire museums dedicated to them. Within European art history, portraits are one of the genres within the hierarchy of genres, and elsewhere, portraits have more or less always existed as representations of people from real life.

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