July 1, 2006–September 4, 2006
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Dates
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Location
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
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Collection Area
Ancient Near Eastern Art, Arts of the Islamic World, Chinese Art, Japanese Art, South Asian & Himalayan Art
“Facing East: Portraits from Asia” explored how portraits expressed identity in Asia and the Near East. Paintings, sculpture, and photographs of Egyptian pharaohs, Chinese empresses, Japanese actors and a host of other subjects reveal the unique ways that the self was understood, represented, and projected in Asian art. The exhibition included approximately 70 masterpieces from the collections of Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Islamic and Ancient Near Eastern art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Popular and academic surveys of portraiture deny that Asia had a portrait tradition. “Facing East” reveals rich and diverse Asian conceptions of portraiture through thought-provoking, cross-cultural juxtapositions of portraits in thematic groupings. These portraits not only provide an entrée into Asian cultures, but also lay bare many of the mechanisms and conceptions of the self that inform western portraiture.
Introduction
In Asia, artists created portraits to proclaim power or status, to remember the dead or their achievements, to recall the beloved, and to strengthen bonds between friends. These portraits triggered personal memories, inspired respect or awe, satisfied the thirst for knowledge, or enabled contact between human and divine realms. Today, they connect us to distant lives and offer insight into Asian cultures and values.
For Facing East: Portraits from Asia, our curators have gathered some of the most powerful works of art in the National Museum of Asian Art collections to reveal the art of portraiture in Asia over two thousand years. From the sculpted head of an Egyptian pharaoh to contemporary photographs of Korean students, the portraits convey the distinct conceptions of the self that emerged in specific artistic, cultural, geographic, and historical circumstances. While each portrait is unique, together they reveal that the aspiration to record and remember individual lives transcends time and place.
Portraits by Region: China
Portraits of a Qing Dynasty Nobleman and Wife
China, Qing dynasty, 19th century
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Purchase—Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program
and partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaff
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1991.105 and .117
These portraits were created as a pair for use in annual rites to venerate departed parents. The depiction of this couple with the same chair, carpet, and furnishings strongly suggests that both paintings were produced with stencils at the same time. Many ancestor portraits were fabricated with the faces left blank; when the person died, the face was painted in freehand. The carpet pattern of cranes, symbols of immortality holding other symbols of longevity in their beaks, underscores the idea that ritual creates a lasting bond between living and dead family members.
Chinese families traditionally trace descent through the male line, so men's portraits were the only ones required for rituals. Since women were deeply honored as mothers, and most sons are emotionally attached to their mothers, men routinely commissioned portraits of both parents. Nonetheless, the husband's portrait was usually hung to the right of his wife's image - a more auspicious position.
Image 1 of 8
Portrait of Shi Wenying (1655–after 1718)
China, Qing dynasty, inscription dated in correspondence with 1716
painting, early 18th century (or possibly a later copy)
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Purchase - Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program
and partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaff
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1991.120
This formal portrait of Shi Wenying (1655-1718), a lieutenant-general of the Chinese Plain White Banner, probably served as an ancestor portrait that kept his family's memory of him alive. It would have been displayed during domestic ritual ceremonies, especially those during the Chinese Lunar New Year. Some families also hung ancestor portraits on occasions when they wanted to report good news - such as introducing a new bride - to a deceased parent.
Shi Wenying received a number of outstanding promotions during his court career. Imperial honors that indicated his high rank include the fur coat and very noticeable peacock feather depicted here. In actuality, the feather hung from the back of the hat and would not have been visible in a frontal portrait. Such symbols were important to descendants, for they reflected family pride and glory.
Image 2 of 8
Self-Portrait Presented to Wang Chi-yuan
By Chang Dai-chien (Zhang Daqian; 1899-1983)
Chinese, 1965
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of the Estate of Wang Chi-yuan S1991.154
In China, self-portraiture was little practiced before the modern era. Chang Dai-chien, arguably China's most brilliant twentieth-century artist, raised the genre's profile by painting at least one hundred self-portraits. Perhaps he liked self-portraiture because he was so comfortable being the center of attention, but he also saw its value as a tool for self-promotion. In everyday life, he dressed like his favorite eleventh-century poet and while still young he grew an old man's 'long beard' in order to be noticed.
By the time Chang painted this image at the age of sixty-six, his reputation for giving away self-portraits was legendary. Since he almost always complied with friends' requests, many of his late portraits are quick and casual. Chang graced this one with a poem to his artist-friend Wang Chi-yuan (Wang Ji Yuan; 1895-1975), which recognizes how portraits bring near those who are distant:
My years look toward seventy and you're already there,
Matched as mortar and pestle, friends for forty years . . .
I've drawn my dusty visage to hang on your study wall,
That we whitebeards may see each other and take cheer.
Translation by Stephen D. Allee
Image 3 of 8
Empress Dowager Cixi Posing as Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion
Photograph by Yu Xunling (1874-1943)
China, Qing dynasty, summer 1903
Modern print from a glass negative
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art Study Collection,
negative number FSC-GR-246
In 1903 Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) staged a dress-up event, wearing a Buddha-adorned crown so she could be photographed as Guanyin, a compassionate Buddhist deity who reputedly lived on an island. The empress dowager created a convincing setting, with a painted cloth depicting a bamboo ravine and the floor covered with painted waves and artificial lotuses.
The de facto ruler of China after 1861, Empress Dowager Cixi was thought by many to be a dangerously power-hungry woman. Shrewd and intelligent, she no doubt saw the potential benefits of associating herself with Guanyin, China's most favored female bodhisattva (enlightened being).
Image 4 of 8
Empress Dowager Cixi in a Snowy Palace Garden
By Yu Xunling (1874–1943)
China, Qing dynasty, 1903–1904
Modern print from a glass negative
Purchase
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, negative number SC-GR-262
Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), standing in the center, radiates the confidence of someone who reputedly once proclaimed, 'I am the most clever woman who ever lived.' At the twilight of imperial China, between 1861 and 1908, the empress dowager served as regent and a powerful behind-the-scenes leader, rare roles for a woman in China. Scholars still debate whether the empress dowager was a ruthless dictator or unfairly manipulated by strong male advisers.
The photographer, Yu Xunling, was a Manchu nobleman who spent part of his youth in Paris. Here he captures the empress dowager posing with a white scarf, a common attribute of Manchu noblewomen, and holding a branch of artificial plum flowers. In China, the winter blooming plum signifies moral purity and female beauty, traits Empress Dowager Cixi associated with herself.
Image 5 of 8
Court Officials as Free Spirits
Wang Shilu Releasing Cranes in the Shade of a Willow
By Bian Yongyu (1645–1712)
China, Qing dynasty, ca. 1679; Ink and color on silk
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1989.60
(left) This portrait of the poet and court official Wang Shilu (1626-1673) releasing cranes is likely an act of imaginative self-fashioning. This theme was well-established in literature as a symbol of a lofty person, whose character was thought to be a free spirit and at one with nature. One clue that this portrait is imaginary is the sitter's loose garb and feathered fan, which are attributes of Daoist sages and immortal beings. It is unlikely Wang Shilu actually would have dressed in this manner; his clothing would have been more akin to that in Portrait of Yinxi. Nonetheless, realistic details, such as the picnic box and Yixing dark clay teapot near the sleeping attendant, give the portrait an air of credibility.
Portrait of Yinxi, Prince Shen in an Outdoor Setting
China, Qing dynasty; inscription dated in correspondence with September 13–October 12, 1757
Ink and color on silk; inscription on paper
Purchase - Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program and partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaff
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1991.101
(right) This unsigned painting probably depicts Yinxi, Prince Shen (1711-1758), who wrote the inscription. The prince was a talented lieutenant-general, poet, amateur landscape painter, and the twenty-first son of the Kangxi emperor (reigned 1661–1722). Chinese artists used outdoor settings to suggest a superior, free-spirited character. Here, the prince wears the casual dress of a courtier and rests beneath a pine near a stream. This suggests that despite his official duties, Yinxi wanted to express his appreciation of nature. The young companion with the teacup may be Yinxi's heir, Yongrong (1744-1790), who would have been about fourteen when this portrait was executed.
Image 6 of 8
The Qianlong Emperor as Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom
Imperial workshop, with face by Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining, 1688–1766)
China, Qing dynasty, mid-18th century
Ink and color on silk
Purchase - Anonymous donor and museum funds
Freer Gallery of Art F2000.4
This portrait epitomizes the multifaceted identities of Chinese emperors in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Its emphatically multicultural nature mirrors the cosmopolitan court and realm of the Qianlong emperor (reigned 1736-96). He asked Giuseppe Castiglione, an Italian missionary, to paint his face because he believed that the handful of Western Jesuit artists residing at his court were the best portraitists of his day. A Manchu who ruled over China, the emperor was portrayed in the center of a thangka, a Tibetan Buddhist religious painting. The emperor had himself depicted as a manifestation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva (enlightened being) of wisdom - astutely positioning himself in the Buddhist hierarchy that was important to the Mongol and Tibetan residents of the empire.
The thangka's inscription, in Tibetan, uses Buddhist cultural rhetoric to legitimate Qianlong:
Wise Manjushri, king of the dharma, lord who manifests as the leader of men.
May your feet remain firmly on the Vajra throne.
May you have the good fortune that your wishes are spontaneously achieved.
Image 7 of 8
Portrait of a Manchu Noblewoman
China, Qing dynasty, 18th-19th century
Ink and color on silk
Purchase—Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program
and partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaff
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1991.58
With its subject elaborately dressed, rigidly posed, and staring straight ahead with an imperturbable, almost noble expression, this ritual portrait of an ancestor balances realism with social decorum. Although family members wanted accurate likenesses, too much detail in a female portrait was considered unseemly because male artists were not allowed to look closely at women who were not related to them. Moreover, following the custom of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the noblewoman in this portrait wears heavy white powder that partially obscures her features.
In imperial China, large frontal portraits functioned as ritual objects. During annual ceremonies of ancestor worship, the forebear's spirit was understood to inhabit the portrait and receive the descendants' offerings. A well-cared-for ancestor blessed living family members with good fortune.
For an example of another portrait that shows the fashion for white powder at the Qing dynasty court, see the photograph titled Empress Dowager Cixi in a Snowy Palace in Projecting Identity.
Image 8 of 8
Portraits by Region: Islamic World
Plate
Egypt, Fatimid dynasty, 12th century
Earthenware painted over glaze with luster
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1941.12
This finely dressed figure riding an impressive horse bears a disproportionately large and stylized falcon upon his wrist. Valued for their speed, ferocity, and intelligence, falcons were viewed as one of the most important emblems of royal strength, prowess, and skill throughout the medieval Islamic world. Like portraits of rulers, the popular image of the falcon and rider recalls lofty attributes, which were to be valued and emulated by all. An inscription on the rim of the plate bestows good wishes to the owner but does not identify the idealized princely figure.
Image 1 of 12
Bowl
Iran, Saljuq dynasty, late 12th–early 13th century
Stone-paste body painted under glaze and over glaze with enamel (mina'i)
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1927.3
Few contemporary viewers would recognize the stylized central figure as a possible portrait. But the artist incorporated several visual clues to identify his subject as the Indian Princess Sapinud. The princess was the wife of the Sasanian king Vahram V, better known in Persian history and literature as Bahram Gur (reigned 420-438).
An image of a large elephant with three riders anchors the center of the eight-lobed bowl. Princess Sapinud rides upon an elaborate litter (hawda) that was reserved for noblewomen, especially brides. A partially clad attendant - a rare representation of a dark-skinned person on a medieval Persian ceramic - rides behind her.
The carefully rendered, striding Indian elephant, the litter, and the servant identify the woman as Bahram Gur's Indian bride.
Image 2 of 12
Portrait of a Painter
Ascribed to Bihzad
Turkey, probably Istanbul, Ottoman dynasty, late 15th century
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1932.28
A portrait likeness often becomes the basis of later images, which subtly or overtly differ from the original. This remarkable painting is one of the earliest extant portraits of an artist from Ottoman Turkey. It is based on a composition generally attributed to Constanzo de Ferrara (circa 1450-after 1524), one of a number of Italian painters who came to Istanbul at the request of Mehmet II (reigned 1451-81) of the Ottoman Empire.
The sitter's identity is unknown, but his subtly modeled facial features and elegant attire suggest that he may have been a member of the royal painting studio. Apart from details of costume, Portrait of a Painter differs from Ferrara's work in one fundamental aspect: the painter is in the process of completing the image of another figure - probably a scribe (identified by his pens and gold pen case). This idea of a 'portrait within a portrait' lends the composition a distinct self-consciousness: the seated figure is simultaneously the subject of one portrait and the conceiver of another. An inscription, now partially cut off on the lower left, attributes the painting to the legendary late fifteenth-century Persian painter Bihzad. The validity of the inscription, however, has been the subject of considerable scholarly debate.
Lower right:
Portrait of a Scribe (detail)
Attributed to Constanzo de Ferrara (ca. 1450-after 1524)
Turkey, Istanbul, 1479-81
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
Lent by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston P15e8
Image 3 of 12
Which Is a Portrait?
Bearded Man Leans on a Staff
Iran, Safavid dynasty, late 16th century
Ink and color wash on paper
Purchase—Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds,
Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1986.312
The haunting figure, with his finely rendered facial contours, aquiline nose, and piercing gaze, offers the uncanny illusion of an aged, weary man posing for the artist. A naturalistic representation of a face, however, does not mean we should assume it is a portrait. In the absence of other visual or written clues or external referents, it is unclear whether this fine drawing represents an imaginary or actual person. In addition, the overall composition of this work conforms to a standard type that became increasingly popular in Iran in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Khusraw-Sultan Holding a Falcon
Attributed to Muhammad Yusuf
Iran, Safavid dynasty, 1630s
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
Lent by the Art and History Collection LTS1995.2.90
An inscription on this portrait identifies the elegantly dressed nobleman as the Uzbek Khusraw-Sultan. He may have been one of the princes of the Uzbek dynasty, which ruled over Transoxiana (modern day Uzbekistan and southwest Kazakhstan) from 1500 to 1598. His headgear and fur-trimmed coat are typical of Uzbek nobility. The falcon perched on his gloved hand, long associated with royal hunting pursuits, is another symbol of princely status. At the same time, however, the portrait conforms to other idealized figural representations by the Persian painter Muhammad Yusuf.
Image 4 of 12
The Pilgrim of Mashhad
Signed by Riza Abbasi (act. ca. 1580s-1635)
Iran, Safavid dynasty, 1598
Ink on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1953.12
The inscription on this expressive pen-and-ink drawing gives clues to the subject's identity:
[The drawing] was completed in the holy [city] of Mashhad,at the end of Friday, the 10th of Muharram 1007 [August 13, 1598] at the government residence, in the company of friends.
. . . Written by Riza.
Muharram, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, was a popular time for pilgrimages, especially to Mashhad, the burial site of the eighth Shi'ite prophet. Caught off guard, the subject has momentarily removed his turban to scratch his head. He was probably one of the many pilgrims artist Riza Abbasi met during his stay in Mashhad.
Keenly observant, Abbasi masterfully integrated word and image to convey the weariness of the figure. The inscription commemorates the circumstances of the portrait's creation and allows the artist to insert himself into the intriguing composition.
This naturalistic and highly personal work is quite distinct from the more idealized portraits popular in seventeenth-century Iran, such as the painting of Khusraw-Sultan Holding a Falcon on the last screen in this section.
Image 5 of 12
Man with Spindle
Iran, Safavid dynasty, 1633
Ink and color on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1953.25
Although the bearded figure in this drawing is not identified, the hastily penned inscription implies that he was a friend of a physician (hakim) named Shamsa, for whom the drawing was created. Informal ink portraits of men and women from different walks of life became increasingly popular in Iran in the early seventeenth century, suggesting the widespread popularity of portraiture during this period. The figure, who looks away from the viewer, holds a spindle and is spinning thread from a piece of wool wrapped around his wrist, an indication that he may have been a weaver. Interestingly, the outline of the drawing was finely pricked with holes so it could be transferred to another surface, which probably took place at a later date when the composition changed hands.
Image 6 of 12
Fath-Ali Shah as Warrior
Signed by Mihr-Ali
Iran, Tehran, Qajar dynasty, 1814
Oil on canvas
Lent by The Art and History Collection LTS1995.2.122
Ablaze in jewelry, the Persian ruler Fath-Ali Shah (reigned 1797-1834) projects a glorious and heroic identity. He wears the guise of the legendary Persian hero Rustam, whose traditional leopard skin has been transformed into a finely painted coat-of-mail, studded with pearls, emeralds, and rubies; his wooden bow, a bejeweled weapon. Fath-Ali Shah's prominent beard and pink cheeks, which were recognized as signs of his virility, coupled with his broad shoulders and slender waist, distinguish his image from other royal portraits of the period.
This is one of several state portraits that were publicly displayed in Persian royal palaces; others were sent to heads of state in Europe, Russia, and India as diplomatic gifts. Conforming to Persian aesthetic ideals that emphasized stylization over naturalism, the artist idealized the shah's features to transform him into an icon of kingship. Ironically, only a year prior to the completion of this impressive portrait, the Persian armies suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Russian forces.
Image 7 of 12
Dervish
By Antoin Sevruguin (late 1830s-1933)
Iran, 1890-1900
Modern print from a glass negative
Myron Smith Bement Collection
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, negative number 28.7(7)
Like many nineteenth-century photographers active in the Near East, Antoin Sevruguin was commissioned to depict men and women from different ethnic, religious, and social backgrounds in Iran. Intended largely for a Western audience, especially the new 'armchair tourist,' most of these images were anonymous representations of types and focused on the subject's costume, race, and appearance.
This portrait of a dervish, a follower of the mystical branch of Islam, offers considerable ethnographic information. His tall conical hat, long hair and beard, ample, coarse robe, and ax (tabar) have been long associated with ascetics in Iran. Sevruguin offers far more than a typological photograph, however; the figure turns towards the camera and looks straight into the lens, establishing an immediate and personal relationship with the photographer. A well-established photographer in Iran, Sevruguin may even have known his subject, whom he portrayed with great candor and sensitivity.
Image 8 of 12
Veiled Woman with Pearls
By Antoin Sevruguin (late 1830s-1933)
Iran, 1890-1900
Modern print from a glass negative
Myron Smith Bement Collection
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, negative number 2.07
In a careful blend of the 'Orient' and the 'Occident,' this studio portrait presents a woman in traditional Persian costume, adorned with several less-than-traditional strings of pearls and wearing a diaphanous veil over her face. While the photograph can be interpreted as a stereotype of the exotic Oriental woman, Antoin Sevruguin also made the portrait more personal and distinct. The woman's pose, her serene expression, and her closed eyes not only distance her from the viewer, they also give the portrait individuality and a sense of arresting mystery that is absent from most other stereotypical nineteenth-century photographs of Near Eastern women. As an Armenian living and working in Iran, Sevruguin was both a detached observer and a sympathetic insider, qualities that set apart photographs such as Veiled Woman with Pearls from other anonymous portraits.
Image 9 of 12
Group of Baha'is
By Antoin Sevruguin (late 1830s–1933)
Iran, 1890–1900
Modern print from a glass negative
Myron Smith Bement Collection, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, negative number 47.7
This historically important photograph depicts several key members of the Baha'i sect. The humanist Baha'i religion, which brought together diverse beliefs, was founded in the second half of the nineteenth century by Baha-ullah (1817-1892) and promulgated by his son Abdul Baha (1844-1921). In this carefully staged studio portrait, a young Abdul Baha stands in the back row, holding a portrait of his father, which marks both the visual and psychological center of the composition. The clearly visible framed portrait emphasizes Baha-ullah's absence and transforms the image from a family portrait to one closely identifiable with the founding of Baha'ism. The elderly gray-haired woman, Susan Moody, was another key figure in the Baha'i movement. Born in Amsterdam, New York, she was a pioneer in advocating education and health care for women in Iran.
Image 10 of 12
Untitled
By Jannane al-Ani (Iraqi, b. 1966)
1996
Color photographic prints from black-and-white internegatives
Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1998.112.1–.2
Jananne al-Ani addresses the issue of identity and its shifting parameters in this pair of large-scale photographs. She presents five women - her three sisters, her mother, and herself - according to age and in progressive stages of veiling. By reversing the seating order al-Ani presents each woman, except for the central figure, both veiled and unveiled. The portraits oscillate from the impersonal and anonymous to the unique and individual, from 'Western' to 'Oriental.' The doubling and reversal further turns the viewer's attention to the way all portraiture obscures and reveals identity. After all, portraits can only depict selective aspects of a sitter.
In this photograph al-Ani is the second figure from the right, with her face revealed; in the one on the next screen, she is the second figure from the left, with only her eyes visible. By including herself among the female members of her family, she adds a personal dimension to her larger investigation into gendered and cultural representation. Although they all adopt the same solemn expression, each woman, if only for a moment, demands the viewer's attention as an independent individual existing within a larger construct.
Image 11 of 12
Untitled
By Jannane al-Ani (Iraqi, b. 1966)
1996
Color photographic prints from black-and-white internegatives
Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1998.112.1–.2
Jananne al-Ani addresses the issue of identity and its shifting parameters in this pair of large-scale photographs. She presents five women - her three sisters, her mother, and herself - according to age and in progressive stages of veiling. By reversing the seating order al-Ani presents each woman, except for the central figure, both veiled and unveiled. The portraits oscillate from the impersonal and anonymous to the unique and individual, from 'Western' to 'Oriental.' The doubling and reversal further turns the viewer's attention to the way all portraiture obscures and reveals identity. After all, portraits can only depict selective aspects of a sitter.
In the photograph on the previous screen al-Ani is the second figure from the right, with her face revealed; in this one, she is the second figure from the left, with only her eyes visible. By including herself among the female members of her family, she adds a personal dimension to her larger investigation into gendered and cultural representation. Although they all adopt the same solemn expression, each woman, if only for a moment, demands the viewer's attention as an independent individual existing within a larger construct.
Image 12 of 12
Portraits by Region: Japan
Courtesans
Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh Young Leaves: The Courtesan Nanasato of the Yotsumeya with Her Attendants Nanaji and Satoji
By Isoda Koryūsai (1735–1790)
Japan, Edo period, 1778–1780
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
The Anne van Biema Collection, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2004.3.27
The Courtesan Sugawara of Tsuruya Dreaming of Wealth and Prosperity
By Isoda Koryūsai (1735–1790)
Japan, Edo period, ca. 1778
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
The Anne van Biema Collection, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2004.3.26
Courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure district were objects of desire and fantasy, celebrated for their beauty and admired for their literary or artistic skills. These prints are part of a series that depicted famous courtesans and listed their names and the names of their brothels. Color prints of courtesans often show them posed in rich costumes and in their private quarters, which few of the people who bought the prints ever actually visited.
On the right, Sugawara, a courtesan at Tsuruya, a famous brothel in the Yoshiwara district, has fallen asleep leaning against a Chinese-style lacquer writing desk. Daikoku, a god of good fortune who promises prosperity and wealth, appears in her dream, shown here in the cloud arising from her chest. The inscription indicates that this, her first dream of the New Year, portends good fortune for the months ahead. On the left, a senior courtesan wears her most luxurious and fashionable kimono and parades with an entourage that includes younger attendants and adolescent apprentices. Although the representations in the 'Models for Fashion' series were stylized, contemporary audiences understood that the images were portraits of specific women.
Image 1 of 12
Self-Portrait
By Kohno Michisei (1895-1950)
Japan, 1917
Oil on canvas
Gift of Shuntatsu Kohno and the Kohno family in memory of their father
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1998.115
Japanese artist Kohno Michisei chose German artist Albrecht Dürer's self-portrait of 1500, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, as the model for his own self-portrait at age twenty-two. European painting became an important facet of Japanese art in the late nineteenth century. Michisei would have known the Dürer portrait from art books and reproductions in the studio of his father, who was also an artist. By choosing Dürer’s painting, which is famous for its articulation of a divinely inspired artistic persona, Michisei was making a statement about his own artistic identity. His direct gaze is unusual in Japanese art.
Michisei observes his features with accuracy, even depicting the magnification of his weak right eye by his spectacles. Over his kimono he wears a fur-collared coat, a combination of traditional and Western dress that was common at the time, and he holds a painter's glove in his hands.
Image 2 of 12
Jitsukawa Enjaku II
By Natori Shunsen (1886-1960)
Japan, 1925-29
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk with applied paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F2004.14
In the seventeenth century, actors in the Japanese kabuki theater became popular heroes, and their portraits were widely produced in woodblock prints. Like many of these actor portraits, this painting of Jitsukawa Enjaku II conveys a dual identity: the actor as idol and as a character he created in performance. Decorated donation envelopes - customarily given by fans to their favorite actors - are pasted around the mounting, an unusual feature that underscores Jitsukawa's fame. The portrait follows the successful formula of a head-and-shoulder bust depicting an actor in full makeup and costume, a popular motif in Japanese art from the 1790s onward. Artist Natori Shunsen specialized in the distinctive, bold style that he used in this painting.
Image 3 of 12
Prince Shōtoku
Japan, Kamakura period (1185-1333)
Ink, color, and gold on silk
Purchase - Parnassus Foundation, courtesy of Raphael and Jane Bernstein; Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. Pearl; Jeffrey P. Cunard, and Museum Funds
Freer Gallery of Art F2001.1
This solemn portrait was created during a resurgence of faith in Prince Shōtoku in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The sixteen-year-old prince wears the garments of a Buddhist monk and holds an incense burner as he prays for his father, Emperor Yōmei (reigned 585-87). In the early eighth century, Prince Shōtoku (574-622), who never reigned as emperor, became the center of a cult of worship, and he continues to be revered today for his accomplishments - stabilizing imperial rule under a constitution and promoting the establishment of Buddhism through the building of temples and the model of his own faith and learning. In this portrait, two young Buddhist acolytes accompany the prince. One holds a sacred scripture (sutra) scroll in a vertical stand, the other, a canopy. Such representations of Prince Shōtoku exemplify the virtues of filial devotion.
Image 4 of 12
Portrait of Yamamoto Kansuke
By Gion Seitoku (1781-1829?)
Japan, Edo period, early 19th century
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Purchase—Friends of Asian Arts and the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program Freer Gallery of Art F1995.1
Yamamoto Kansuke (died 1561) - a trusted military advisor to the warlord Takeda Shingen (1521-1573) - died in battle after his flawed plan led to catastrophic losses for Takeda's forces. Kansuke is described in brief records of the Takeda family as homely and blind in one eye but intelligent in military and political strategy. In later fictional accounts and kabuki dramas, Kansuke became an ideal model of a loyal and selfless retainer whose inner character transcended his outer appearance. The artist Gion Seitoku, best known for his distinctive portraits of beautiful courtesans, exaggerated the warrior's features, such as his large nose and ears and his blind eye, and rendered the figure with dramatic, stylized lines.
Image 5 of 12
Portrait of Satō Issai
By Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841)
Japan, Edo period, 1824
Hanging scroll mounted on panel; ink and color on silk
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1968.66
Satō Issai (1772-1859), the subject of this portrait, was a prominent Japanese scholar of Chinese Confucian studies who served warrior families and traveled throughout Japan teaching Chinese philosophy. Among his students was the painter Watanabe Kazan, whose preliminary sketches of Issai combine Sino-Japanese techniques employing line and plane with the European technique of using light and shadow to create a likeness. The artist's concern with likeness is revealed in a note on one sketch: 'Closest portrait - repeat and execute.'
Satō Issai also contemplated likeness and identity in his inscription on this painting:
A tiny bit of resemblance, I can say it's me;
A tiny bit of non-resemblance, I can say it's not me.
Likeness and unlikeness is in the facial expression;
What is beyond likeness and unlikeness is the spirit.
Now the spirit has neither beginning nor end; it has no past or
present; it moves about like rivers and mountains;
It is fixed like stars; it gathers like winds and thunder;
It scatters like mists and clouds, permeating every corner of the
universe, remaining unmeasurable. So what does not
resemble me is very much like me. As to which is like me,
who can say that it is not really me?
Translation by Yoshiaki Shimizu
Image 6 of 12
Portrait of Fujiwara no Kamatari
Japan, Muromachi period, 15th century<br>Ink, color, and gold on silk
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1965.1
This portrait of the Japanese aristocrat Fujiwara no Kamatari (614-669) and his two sons is a religious icon. It represents Kamatari in the setting of an enshrined Shinto deity, with the shrine's curtains pulled back and three sacred mirrors overhead. Wearing formal black robes and carrying a baton that symbolizes his rank and authority, he sits in front of a screen painted with wisteria (fuji), an emblem of his family. Worship of Kamatari as a Shinto god (kami) began shortly after his death and continues today near Nara City where his sons, depicted smaller here because they are not gods, enshrined his remains. Kamatari was revered as a protector of legitimate imperial rule and as the ancestor of the powerful Fujiwara family.
Image 7 of 12
Portrait of a Buddhist Pilgrim
Japan, Muromachi period (1333–1573)
Hanging scroll mounted on panel; ink and color on silk
Freer Gallery of Art F1962.13
This portrait depicts a youthful Buddhist pilgrim with his hair bound in an archaic style that often appears in sculptures and paintings. It has long been thought to represent one of the many later legends about Prince Shōtoku (Shōtoku Taishi, 574-622). Recently, however, scholar Yamamoto Yōko proposed that this figure represents Dōnan Gyōja, who is worshiped as a manifestation of the bodhisattva (enlightened being) Kannon (Avalokiteshvara) at the Kokawadera, a Buddhist temple in the Nara region.
The figure's solemn and idealized features and his seated posture on the trunk of a chestnut tree resemble those seen in paintings of bodhisattvas, such as Fugen (Sanskrit: Samantabhadra), in earthly settings. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries artists created such paintings in considerable numbers, particularly for Zen Buddhist temples.
Image 8 of 12
Portrait of the Poet Saigū no Nyōgo Yoshiko from the Agedatami version of Thirty-six Immortals of Poetry
Painting attributed to Fujiwara Nobuzane (1176?-1265?); calligraphy attributed to Fujiwara Tame'ie (1198–1275)
Japan, Kamakura period, early 13th century
Segment from a handscroll, mounted as a hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1950.24
This painting was once part of a handscroll depicting the Thirty-six Immortals of Poetry (Sanjūrokkasen), one of the earliest versions of this subject in existence. These poets, who lived at various times, were selected based on the merits of their work. Princess Saigū no Nyōgo (929–985), the poet with the highest rank, reclines on a raised mat (tatami) whose striped pattern signifies her imperial rank. A lacquered box for her writing brush and ink lies in front of her. Though customs of the time required women of high rank to be concealed from public view, the artist provides a privileged bird's-eye perspective that allows us to see the princess behind the curtain.
A biography of the princess written in Chinese characters is followed by one of her poems:
With the sound of the koto
The wind in the pines
of the mountain peak
Seems to ask
With which note shall I begin?
Translation by Ann Yonemura
Image 9 of 12
Monk as Object of Veneration
Portrait of Gaofeng Yuanmiao
By Chūan Shinkō (act. mid-15th century)
Japan, Muromachi period, 1333–1573
Hanging scroll mounted on panel; ink on silk
Gift of Charles Lang Freer Freer Gallery of Art F1911.317
Portraits of Zen (Chinese: Chan) Buddhist priests are known in Japan as chinzō. Such portraits strive to convey the spiritual enlightenment of the master. The Chinese priest Gaofeng Yuanmiao (1239-1295) was the twenty-eighth in the line of succession from Bodhidharma, the Indian founder of the Chan (Zen) school in China. The Japanese artist Chūan Shinkō was a Zen monk of the Kenchōji temple in Kamakura. He conveyed the severity of Gaofeng's self-discipline through physical features such as his intense gaze, which is described, along with his voluminous hair, in a separate inscription: 'Eyes aglow, one disheveled mass of hair standing upright....'
Image 10 of 12
Child Acrobats
Japan, Meiji era, late 19th century
Photograph; albumen print with hand coloring
Purchase and partial gift of Henry and Nancy Rosin
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives R234
The medium of the photograph creates a strong illusion of capturing a moment of reality, although in fact this image was carefully staged. Their contorted poses identify these children as members of an acrobatic troupe and their costumes indicate that they are not Japanese, though their names are not known. Foreign performers became popular in Japanese cities beginning in the Edo period (1615-1868). Photographs like this one were created for sale mainly to foreign visitors to Japan.
Image 11 of 12
The Actor Arashi Kitsusaburo II as Minamoto no Yorimasa
By Ashiyuki (act. ca. 1814-33)
Japan, Edo period, 1822
Woodblock print; ink, color, and metallic pigments on paper
The Anne van Biema Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2004.3.247
During the Edo period (1615-1868) in Japan, fans and admirers collected portraits of their favorite actors in great roles. This portrait depicts kabuki actor Arashi Kitsusaburo II in the role of the twelfth-century Japanese warrior, Minamoto no Yorimasa, who was famous for dramatically vanquishing a nue, a giant supernatural bird.
The unusual inclusion of a frame around the portrait suggests another layer of meaning beyond the memory of an admired actor's performance. The frame is similar to those that surround the painted wooden votive panels people offered to the native Shinto gods (kami) for blessings and protection.
Image 12 of 12
Portraits by Region: Korea
High School
High School Uni-Face: Girl
By Do-ho Suh (b. 1959)
1997
Computer-generated color photograph
Edition of six, exhibition copy, LM6691
Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York ELS2006.2.2
High School Uni-Face: Boy
By Do-ho Suh (b. 1959)
1997
Computer-generated color photograph
Edition of six, exhibition copy, LM4989
Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York ELS2006.2.1
In these works and that on the next screen, artist Do-ho Suh explicitly addresses the concept of identity from a transnational and a Korean perspective by creating a visual oscillation between the individual and the larger social collective, represented by his high-school class. Suh is interested in exploring the tension 'between the singular and the plural. In the Korean language there is no such distinction.'
Uni-face Girl and Uni-face Boy are computer-generated images of Suh's female and male classmates, respectively, combined to create a single likeness.
Image 1 of 1
Portraits by Region: Ancient Near East
Head of a pharaoh
Egypt, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5 or 6 (ca. 2500–2170 b.c.e.)
Stone and copper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1938.11
Whose portrait is this? The headgear and moustache identify the figure as an Egyptian pharaoh; the tall crown with rounded top, known as the White Crown, signifies his rule over Upper (southern) Egypt. Broken at the neck, the head originally belonged to a full, most likely standing statue. The original statue probably provided further clues to the figure's identity, perhaps through a hieroglyphic inscription that named the pharaoh.
In ancient Egypt, such statues were placed in tombs to serve as eternal images of the deceased. Sculptors sought to convey the pharaoh's divine character through idealized representations. Yet they also experimented with the naturalistic rendering of facial features, seen here in the modeling of the pharaoh's cheeks and lips. Details of the crown and face suggest that this statue was carved in Dynasty 5 or 6, the period following the building of the Great Pyramids at Giza (circa 2500 b.c.e.).
Image 1 of 4
Plate
Iran, Sasanian period, 300-400
Silver and gilt
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1934.23
From around 225 to 651, the Sasanian dynasty extended its rule from its homeland in southwestern Iran to large areas of what is now southwestern and central Asia. One of the earliest and most enduring of the royal images created during the Sasanian period shows the king on horseback, hunting game. Such portraits emphasized the king's dynastic identity and his royal stature as a heroic hunter capable of subduing powerful beasts.
About thirty silver plates with depictions of rulers at the hunt have been found in Iran and neighboring countries. Produced in imperial workshops and frequently embellished with gilding, as here, these plates were presented as official gifts from the king to high-ranking individuals inside the empire and beyond its borders.
Though the royal figures on these plates are not named in inscriptions, they often can be identified by their distinctive crowns, which also appear on coin portraits of individual Sasanian kings. The crown worn by this ruler suggests that he is Shapur ii (reigned 309-79). According to the Shahnama, the epic Persian Book of Kings written around 1010, even as a child Shapur displayed the great wisdom that characterized the ideal ruler.
Image 2 of 4
Family Member
Funerary relief of Haliphat
Syria, Palmyra, Roman Empire, ca. 231
Limestone
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Freer Gallery of Art F1908.236
This bust is from Palmyra, a city in southern Syria that flourished during the Roman Empire as a caravan oasis on trade routes linking the Mediterranean with southwest Asia. Members of Palmyra's prosperous merchant class often commissioned such busts, which covered the openings of burial compartments in family tombs located in the desert outside the city.
Written in Aramaic, the inscriptions carved on this relief identify this figure as a woman named Haliphat and date her death as the year 231. While inscriptions individualized the deceased, funerary sculptures also stressed a collective identity: membership in a particular social class and connection with family.
Image 3 of 4
Funerary Statues of Male Figures
Yemen, probably from Tamna, ca. 2d-1st century B.C.E.
Travertine
Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn to the Smithsonian Institution
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1986.514 and .508
In the first millennium b.c.e., the kingdoms of Qataban and Saba, in modern Yemen, enriched by the caravan trade in frankincense and myrrh, developed distinctive styles of stone architecture and sculpture. The largest surviving group of sculptures was recovered from cemeteries of family vaults located outside the capitals of the two kingdoms. Most belong to the two types represented here: a standing figure (male or female) carved from a single block or a head (often with inlaid features) inserted into a limestone niche. Both types usually were inscribed with the name of the deceased and his or her father’s name, and featured a schematic treatment of the body but a detailed rendering of facial features. The statues commemorated the deceased as individuals but primarily conveyed the collective identities of family, clan, and tribe.
Image 4 of 4
Portraits by Region: South Asia
Tilakayat Govardhanlalji
By Ghasiram Hardev Sharma (1868-1930)
India, state of Rajasthan, Nathadwara, ca. 1900
Brush drawing with color on paper
Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2003.3
Since the Indian artist Ghasiram Hardev Sharma drew two portraits in different stages of completion on one sheet of paper, this work is likely one of his personal drawings investigating likeness and modeling. Sharma experimented constantly with portrait style. The confident contours and assured shading of this powerful image reveal his incorporation of the three-quarter view and photographic realism into the traditional portrait genre of north India.
Conventions of likeness that symbolize status can change over time. For three centuries, north Indian court painters depicted all sitters of high status in profile, as seen in the small ink drawing of Prince Khurram on the previous screen. But by the late nineteenth century, the circulation of photographs, printed advertisements, and picture postcards throughout the subcontinent led to a revolution in portraiture. Responding to these trends, Sharma sketched, painted, and photographed his patron, the chief priest of an important Hindu temple complex, in various traditional and contemporary modes.
Image 1 of 12
Nobleman and Woman as Lamps of Fortune (Dipalakshmi)
India, Karnaktaka, Nayak period, 17th century
Bronze
Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2000.9.1–.2
These bronze images from south India depict a smiling husband and wife holding aloft shallow basins that were used as oil lamps. The lamps flanked an image of a deity within the sanctum of a Hindu temple. Their robust bodies, swaying postures, chins shaped like mango stones, tight smiles, and large, staring eyes are probably less a reference to their physical appearances than to contemporary ideals of beauty.
Casting a portrait in bronze was an expensive undertaking, suggesting that these subjects came from the noble or possibly the merchant class. By commissioning such portraits, the elite of the Nayak period (seventeenth century) sought to express their eternal spiritual devotion. Giving the lamps to the temple also secured a couple’s social status and spiritual merit.
Image 2 of 12
Six Recruits from the Fraser Album
Attributed to Ghulam Ali Khan
India, state of Haryana, 1815-1816
Watercolor on paper
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1999.1
From swaggering confidence to fragile apprehension, these superbly realized portraits depict the distinctive personalities in an Indian regiment. The young men came from diverse communities in the Himalayan foothills and the area around the capital city Delhi. One soldier - the rajput Ramu - wears the yellow uniform of Skinner's Horse, a renowned regiment founded by the Anglo-Indian James Skinner (1778-1841). Other fighters are portrayed in local dress.
The numbers above the soldiers' portraits correspond to a list of their names, castes, and villages that was written in Persian and translated into English. The Scottish political agent William Fraser - who served the British East India Company, a commercial trading firm that gradually took control of India in order to secure its profits - commissioned the group portrait to remember the bonds he had forged with the men he recruited and commanded.
Image 3 of 12
Maharana Bhim Singh of Mewar at a Palace Window
Workshop of Chokha
India, state of Rajasthan, Udaipur, ca. 1810-20
Opaque watercolor and gold on cotton
Gift of Terence McInerney
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1996.33
Self-commissioned portraits of rulers rarely depict private moments and perhaps never convey weakness or defeat. Court painters at Mewar depicted the Maharana (great king) Bhim Singh, who reigned 1778-1828, as the embodiment of perfect kingship. In fact, his reputation suffered after he decided to avoid war by having his daughter killed.
Mewar artists represented Bhim Singh in profile with large lotus-shaped eyes that symbolize ideal beauty. Royal symbols such as a halo, a sword to convey martial prowess, and the crescent moon identify the ruler as a regent of the Hindu deity Eklingji (Shiva).
Even so, courtiers would have easily recognized Bhim Singh by the tilt of his mustache, the contour of his parrot-beak nose, and his distinctively tied turban.
Image 4 of 12
Hindu manuscript cover representing King Shrinivasa Malla
Nepal, city of Patan, 17th century
Opaque watercolor and gold on wood
Anonymous gift, Arthur M. Sacker Gallery S1995.91a–b
King Shrinivasa Malla (1661-1684) received spiritual merit for commissioning this sacred manuscript, a pious act that is reiterated in his portrait as a devotee bearing a lotus offering. The similarity between the lotus blossom and the king's red-tinged eye visualizes a poetic metaphor of ideal beauty that first emerged in ancient India. Although we cannot name the king's Brahmin priest depicted on both covers or the royal elephant receiving the priest's offerings, they were undoubtedly well known at the Nepalese court. These images also may have been viewed as portraits.
Both paintings are located on the interior faces of the wooden covers. The outer covers, which were the visual focus of devotees during rituals, bear representations of deities.
Image 5 of 12
Prince Khurram, the future Emperor Shah Jahan
India, ca. 1615
Ink on paper
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1986.437
This sensitively drawn likeness provides a rare glimpse into the artistic process of the Mughal court. In the seventeenth century, the nobility of the vast Mughal Empire was represented only in impassive profile views; thus the careful rendering of the profile’s contour became especially important.
Working with a fine brush and ink, the artist drew Prince Khurram (1592-1666) from life on a small scrap of paper. He began with careful small strokes, pointing his squirrel-hair brush by drawing it along the paper in small curlicues (visible to the portrait's right), and correcting and strengthening the contours of the young man's profile as he proceeded. His judicious use of red conveys a sense of life. The white painted line adjacent to the profile’s firm contour covers the artist’s preparatory marks. Such intimate personal studies served as visual aids in the production of finished paintings.
A finished painting of the mature Shah Jahan can be seen on the next screen.
Image 6 of 12
Emperor Shah Jahan with Asaf Khan from the Late Shah Jahan Album
By Bichitr
India, ca. 1650
Opaque watercolor with gold on paper
Purchase—Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds,
Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1986.403
Every element of this imperial portrait was calculated to assert the political legitimacy and authority of the Indian emperor, Shah Jahan (1592-1666). The artist Bichitr layered symbols of kingship with exquisitely rendered portraits that endow the image with the authority of the real. Bichitr subtly conveyed the emperor's superior rank by depicting him slightly taller and more sumptuously adorned than his father-in-law, the powerful vizier Asaf Khan. Heavenly figures and sanctifying light, motifs adapted from European prints, as well as Shah Jahan's luminous halo, convey that he is divinely favored.
The painting also reveals the display of splendour that was central to Mughal kingship. Shah Jahan's personal passion for gems is apparent not only in the painting's subject - the gift of a ruby - but also in its jewel-like surface and the flowers on the border that appear to be fashioned from gems set within gold.
Compare this work to the sketch of the young Shah Jahan (Prince Khurram) in Likeness and Identity.
Image 7 of 12
Woman of the Court with a Portrait of the Emperor Jahangir
India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1603
Opaque watercolor on paper
Lent by Smithsonian American Art Museum; gift of John Gellatly LTS1985.1.354
Indian poets often wrote about lovelorn women who painted their beloved's portrait as a way of expressing their longing. Could this painting of a noblewoman holding a portrait of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (1569-1627) refer to this romantic motif?
Women of the imperial Mughal family lived within formal seclusion (purdah), but portraits of these high-born women were produced - perhaps by talented princesses or through verbal descriptions given to male artists. Although the portrait of the woman is idealized, the lyrical palette and exuberantly swaying plants subtly convey an inner passion.
Image 8 of 12
Mirror Case with Portrait
By 'Abid
India; interior portrait: Imperial Mughal, by 'Abid, dated 1628;
exterior paintings and mirror case, late 17th–mid-18th century; hinges, 19th century
Lacquer over wood, opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper
Purchase, Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art
Freer Gallery of Art F2005.4
Portraits of women at the Mughal court are rare, and this portrait's eroticism is unprecedented. Comparing the generic face of the beauty depicted on the back cover of the mirror case (detail, lower right) with this woman's somewhat pointed nose and smallish eyes, however, gives the sense that this is a specific person.
The portrait's exquisite refinement, the artist's renown, and the painting's date suggest that it was produced for Emperor Jahangir (1569-1627) or his son Shah Jahan (1592-1666), the builder of the Taj Mahal. The small oval painting clearly was valued long after those who knew the woman had passed away. It was placed against the sparkling ground and set within the mirror case almost a century after its creation.
Image 9 of 12
Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar Hunting Heron
India, state of Rajasthan, Udaipur, 1720-30
Opaque watercolor on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1992.28
While most royal portraits interweave the king's role with his physical appearance, this painting unravels the equivalence of the king, the body politic, and the kingdom. Distinguished by a gold halo and riding a dark horse, Sangram Singh enacts ideal kingship by demonstrating his hunting prowess in the midst of his realm. Multiple images of the ruler, his companions, his falcons, and the unfortunate heron capture the hunt's minute-by-minute action as does their zig-zag process across the landscape. To be clearly recognizable, all are depicted as if seen from straight on.
The details of the hunt - its courtiers and servants, a tented palanquin signifying the presence of a court lady, a village and its temples, the tilled fields and low hills - all contribute to the portrayal of the ruler as the embodiment and cause of his flourishing kingdom.
Image 10 of 12
Queen Dipa Malla as the Goddess Prajnaparamita
Nepal, 14th century
Gilt copper with traces of cold gold and blue pigment
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1986.23
Little is known about Queen Dipa Malla, the regent of a small kingdom in the western reaches of Nepal during the fourteenth century. This portrait implies that the queen identified with Prajnaparamita, the Buddhist personification of wisdom. Worship of the image within a shrine would have accrued spiritual merit for the queen.
In both Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms, the ideal qualities of rulers were conveyed through portraits that gave human monarchs the incorruptible and perfect bodies of deities. By implication, a ruler so depicted also personified the divine being's benevolent nature or vast powers.
Image 11 of 12
Stamps of Legitimacy
Coin of King Kanishka ii
India, ca. 200 c.e.; Gold struck
Lent by Smithsonian American Art Museum;
gift of John Gellatly LTS1985.1.604
(top) The practice of depicting rulers upon coins emerged in Persia in the fourth century b.c.e. The kings of the Kushan Empire, which extended from modern Uzbekistan through northern India, introduced to the Indian subcontinent gold coins and portraits upon coins as well as the practice of depicting royalty with halos. King Kanishka ii (reigned circa 200-240 c.e.), wearing boots that announce his Central Asian nomadic heritage and adorned with a halo, offers a sacrifice at a small fire altar marked by a trident. The charisma generated by portraits upon coins is still considered so potent that in the United States it is illegal to depict living presidents on circulating money.
Coin of Emperor Jahangir
North India, Ajmer, 1614; Gold struck
Lent by the Smithsonian American Art Museum;
gift of John Gellatly LTS1985.1.605
(bottom) This coin depicts Jahangir seated on a throne and holding a wine cup, possibly alluding to the Persian 'cup of Jamshid' in which all the world supposedly was mirrored. The inscription on the verso, 'Destiny has drawn on money of gold the portrait of his Majesty Shah Jahangir,' asserts the link between coinage and portraiture in disseminating a ruler's ambitions. Jahangir (1569-1627), whose vast empire extended from southern Afghanistan over much of the Indian subcontinent, introduced a series of gold portrait coins, an unusual choice for a Muslim ruler. Perhaps because of the Islamic injunction against imagery, the coins - like painted portraits of Jahangir - were produced only for limited distribution. Trusted courtiers wore the gold portraits in their turbans or on necklaces.
Image 12 of 12
Portraits by Theme: Likeness & Identity
How do we know when an image depicts a specific person? Likeness—the resemblance of a portrait to its subject—differs across cultures and over time. Likeness is so powerful that portraits often give the impression of a direct encounter between artist and subject. Many portraits, however, are based on memory or verbal descriptions. Yet even purely imaginary works can attain the authority of portraits drawn from life after they have been viewed or copied over the course of centuries.
Portraits go beyond physical appearance. Some idealize features to suggest an unblemished character; others exaggerate physical details to identify the subject clearly. Much of the meaning in Asian portraits is communicated—indirectly through posture, gesture, setting, and costume. Some of the symbols in these portraits, such as halos and crowns, have familiar meanings that we can interpret easily. Others—such as the link between the profile view and worldly power employed in Mughal portraits and American coins—call for specific cultural knowledge. The choices that artists make to achieve likeness usually reflect cultural values. When artists redefine likeness by introducing new visual conventions into portraiture, they may be signaling a shift in cultural perceptions about social roles or personal identity.
Portrait of a Manchu Noblewoman
China, Qing dynasty, 18th-19th century
Ink and color on silk
Purchase—Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program
and partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaff
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1991.58
With its subject elaborately dressed, rigidly posed, and staring straight ahead with an imperturbable, almost noble expression, this ritual portrait of an ancestor balances realism with social decorum. Although family members wanted accurate likenesses, too much detail in a female portrait was considered unseemly because male artists were not allowed to look closely at women who were not related to them. Moreover, following the custom of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the noblewoman in this portrait wears heavy white powder that partially obscures her features.
In imperial China, large frontal portraits functioned as ritual objects. During annual ceremonies of ancestor worship, the forebear's spirit was understood to inhabit the portrait and receive the descendants' offerings. A well-cared-for ancestor blessed living family members with good fortune.
For an example of another portrait that shows the fashion for white powder at the Qing dynasty court, see the photograph titled Empress Dowager Cixi in a Snowy Palace in Projecting Identity.
Image 1 of 10
Man with Spindle
Iran, Safavid dynasty, 1633
Ink and color on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1953.25
Although the bearded figure in this drawing is not identified, the hastily penned inscription implies that he was a friend of a physician (hakim) named Shamsa, for whom the drawing was created. Informal ink portraits of men and women from different walks of life became increasingly popular in Iran in the early seventeenth century, suggesting the widespread popularity of portraiture during this period. The figure, who looks away from the viewer, holds a spindle and is spinning thread from a piece of wool wrapped around his wrist, an indication that he may have been a weaver. Interestingly, the outline of the drawing was finely pricked with holes so it could be transferred to another surface, which probably took place at a later date when the composition changed hands.
Image 2 of 10
The Pilgrim of Mashhad
Signed by Riza Abbasi (act. ca. 1580s-1635)
Iran, Safavid dynasty, 1598
Ink on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1953.12
The inscription on this expressive pen-and-ink drawing gives clues to the subject's identity:
[The drawing] was completed in the holy [city] of Mashhad,at the end of Friday, the 10th of Muharram 1007 [August 13, 1598] at the government residence, in the company of friends.
. . . Written by Riza.
Muharram, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, was a popular time for pilgrimages, especially to Mashhad, the burial site of the eighth Shi'ite prophet. Caught off guard, the subject has momentarily removed his turban to scratch his head. He was probably one of the many pilgrims artist Riza Abbasi met during his stay in Mashhad.
Keenly observant, Abbasi masterfully integrated word and image to convey the weariness of the figure. The inscription commemorates the circumstances of the portrait's creation and allows the artist to insert himself into the intriguing composition.
This naturalistic and highly personal work is quite distinct from the more idealized portraits popular in seventeenth-century Iran, such as the painting of Khusraw-Sultan Holding a Falcon on the last screen in this section.
Image 3 of 10
Prince Khurram, the future Emperor Shah Jahan
India, ca. 1615
Ink on paper
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1986.437
This sensitively drawn likeness provides a rare glimpse into the artistic process of the Mughal court. In the seventeenth century, the nobility of the vast Mughal Empire was represented only in impassive profile views; thus the careful rendering of the profile’s contour became especially important.
Working with a fine brush and ink, the artist drew Prince Khurram (1592-1666) from life on a small scrap of paper. He began with careful small strokes, pointing his squirrel-hair brush by drawing it along the paper in small curlicues (visible to the portrait's right), and correcting and strengthening the contours of the young man's profile as he proceeded. His judicious use of red conveys a sense of life. The white painted line adjacent to the profile’s firm contour covers the artist’s preparatory marks. Such intimate personal studies served as visual aids in the production of finished paintings.
A finished painting of the mature Shah Jahan can be seen on the next screen.
Image 4 of 10
Tilakayat Govardhanlalji
By Ghasiram Hardev Sharma (1868-1930)
India, state of Rajasthan, Nathadwara, ca. 1900
Brush drawing with color on paper
Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2003.3
Since the Indian artist Ghasiram Hardev Sharma drew two portraits in different stages of completion on one sheet of paper, this work is likely one of his personal drawings investigating likeness and modeling. Sharma experimented constantly with portrait style. The confident contours and assured shading of this powerful image reveal his incorporation of the three-quarter view and photographic realism into the traditional portrait genre of north India.
Conventions of likeness that symbolize status can change over time. For three centuries, north Indian court painters depicted all sitters of high status in profile, as seen in the small ink drawing of Prince Khurram on the previous screen. But by the late nineteenth century, the circulation of photographs, printed advertisements, and picture postcards throughout the subcontinent led to a revolution in portraiture. Responding to these trends, Sharma sketched, painted, and photographed his patron, the chief priest of an important Hindu temple complex, in various traditional and contemporary modes.
Image 5 of 10
Self-Portrait Presented to Wang Chi-yuan
By Chang Dai-chien (Zhang Daqian; 1899-1983)
Chinese, 1965
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of the Estate of Wang Chi-yuan S1991.154
In China, self-portraiture was little practiced before the modern era. Chang Dai-chien, arguably China's most brilliant twentieth-century artist, raised the genre's profile by painting at least one hundred self-portraits. Perhaps he liked self-portraiture because he was so comfortable being the center of attention, but he also saw its value as a tool for self-promotion. In everyday life, he dressed like his favorite eleventh-century poet and while still young he grew an old man's 'long beard' in order to be noticed.
By the time Chang painted this image at the age of sixty-six, his reputation for giving away self-portraits was legendary. Since he almost always complied with friends' requests, many of his late portraits are quick and casual. Chang graced this one with a poem to his artist-friend Wang Chi-yuan (Wang Ji Yuan; 1895-1975), which recognizes how portraits bring near those who are distant:
My years look toward seventy and you're already there,
Matched as mortar and pestle, friends for forty years . . .
I've drawn my dusty visage to hang on your study wall,
That we whitebeards may see each other and take cheer.
Translation by Stephen D. Allee
Image 6 of 10
Portrait of Yamamoto Kansuke
By Gion Seitoku (1781-1829?)
Japan, Edo period, early 19th century
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Purchase—Friends of Asian Arts and the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program Freer Gallery of Art F1995.1
Yamamoto Kansuke (died 1561) - a trusted military advisor to the warlord Takeda Shingen (1521-1573) - died in battle after his flawed plan led to catastrophic losses for Takeda's forces. Kansuke is described in brief records of the Takeda family as homely and blind in one eye but intelligent in military and political strategy. In later fictional accounts and kabuki dramas, Kansuke became an ideal model of a loyal and selfless retainer whose inner character transcended his outer appearance. The artist Gion Seitoku, best known for his distinctive portraits of beautiful courtesans, exaggerated the warrior's features, such as his large nose and ears and his blind eye, and rendered the figure with dramatic, stylized lines.
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Portrait of Satō Issai
By Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841)
Japan, Edo period, 1824
Hanging scroll mounted on panel; ink and color on silk
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1968.66
Satō Issai (1772-1859), the subject of this portrait, was a prominent Japanese scholar of Chinese Confucian studies who served warrior families and traveled throughout Japan teaching Chinese philosophy. Among his students was the painter Watanabe Kazan, whose preliminary sketches of Issai combine Sino-Japanese techniques employing line and plane with the European technique of using light and shadow to create a likeness. The artist's concern with likeness is revealed in a note on one sketch: 'Closest portrait - repeat and execute.'
Satō Issai also contemplated likeness and identity in his inscription on this painting:
A tiny bit of resemblance, I can say it's me;
A tiny bit of non-resemblance, I can say it's not me.
Likeness and unlikeness is in the facial expression;
What is beyond likeness and unlikeness is the spirit.
Now the spirit has neither beginning nor end; it has no past or
present; it moves about like rivers and mountains;
It is fixed like stars; it gathers like winds and thunder;
It scatters like mists and clouds, permeating every corner of the
universe, remaining unmeasurable. So what does not
resemble me is very much like me. As to which is like me,
who can say that it is not really me?
Translation by Yoshiaki Shimizu
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Portrait of a Painter
Ascribed to Bihzad
Turkey, probably Istanbul, Ottoman dynasty, late 15th century
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1932.28
A portrait likeness often becomes the basis of later images, which subtly or overtly differ from the original. This remarkable painting is one of the earliest extant portraits of an artist from Ottoman Turkey. It is based on a composition generally attributed to Constanzo de Ferrara (circa 1450-after 1524), one of a number of Italian painters who came to Istanbul at the request of Mehmet II (reigned 1451-81) of the Ottoman Empire.
The sitter's identity is unknown, but his subtly modeled facial features and elegant attire suggest that he may have been a member of the royal painting studio. Apart from details of costume, Portrait of a Painter differs from Ferrara's work in one fundamental aspect: the painter is in the process of completing the image of another figure - probably a scribe (identified by his pens and gold pen case). This idea of a 'portrait within a portrait' lends the composition a distinct self-consciousness: the seated figure is simultaneously the subject of one portrait and the conceiver of another. An inscription, now partially cut off on the lower left, attributes the painting to the legendary late fifteenth-century Persian painter Bihzad. The validity of the inscription, however, has been the subject of considerable scholarly debate.
Lower right:
Portrait of a Scribe (detail)
Attributed to Constanzo de Ferrara (ca. 1450-after 1524)
Turkey, Istanbul, 1479-81
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
Lent by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston P15e8
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Which Is a Portrait?
Bearded Man Leans on a Staff
Iran, Safavid dynasty, late 16th century
Ink and color wash on paper
Purchase—Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds,
Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1986.312
The haunting figure, with his finely rendered facial contours, aquiline nose, and piercing gaze, offers the uncanny illusion of an aged, weary man posing for the artist. A naturalistic representation of a face, however, does not mean we should assume it is a portrait. In the absence of other visual or written clues or external referents, it is unclear whether this fine drawing represents an imaginary or actual person. In addition, the overall composition of this work conforms to a standard type that became increasingly popular in Iran in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Khusraw-Sultan Holding a Falcon
Attributed to Muhammad Yusuf
Iran, Safavid dynasty, 1630s
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
Lent by the Art and History Collection LTS1995.2.90
An inscription on this portrait identifies the elegantly dressed nobleman as the Uzbek Khusraw-Sultan. He may have been one of the princes of the Uzbek dynasty, which ruled over Transoxiana (modern day Uzbekistan and southwest Kazakhstan) from 1500 to 1598. His headgear and fur-trimmed coat are typical of Uzbek nobility. The falcon perched on his gloved hand, long associated with royal hunting pursuits, is another symbol of princely status. At the same time, however, the portrait conforms to other idealized figural representations by the Persian painter Muhammad Yusuf.
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Portraits by Theme: Portraits & Memory
Portraits have the power to evoke a person’s presence in the viewer’s mind. They seem to draw close those who are distant, bring the past into the present and even bestowing life upon the departed. They are thus intimately associated with memory.
A portrait connected with death and burial can substitute, in ritual, for the person depicted, or it can offer the viewer imaginary but emotionally powerful and seemingly magical access to the departed. Indeed, the earliest portraits were probably those relating to death rituals, which were thought to forge a bond across time and space and between the living and the dead.
Portrait of Fujiwara no Kamatari
Japan, Muromachi period, 15th century<br>Ink, color, and gold on silk
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1965.1
This portrait of the Japanese aristocrat Fujiwara no Kamatari (614-669) and his two sons is a religious icon. It represents Kamatari in the setting of an enshrined Shinto deity, with the shrine's curtains pulled back and three sacred mirrors overhead. Wearing formal black robes and carrying a baton that symbolizes his rank and authority, he sits in front of a screen painted with wisteria (fuji), an emblem of his family. Worship of Kamatari as a Shinto god (kami) began shortly after his death and continues today near Nara City where his sons, depicted smaller here because they are not gods, enshrined his remains. Kamatari was revered as a protector of legitimate imperial rule and as the ancestor of the powerful Fujiwara family.
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Group of Baha'is
By Antoin Sevruguin (late 1830s–1933)
Iran, 1890–1900
Modern print from a glass negative
Myron Smith Bement Collection, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, negative number 47.7
This historically important photograph depicts several key members of the Baha'i sect. The humanist Baha'i religion, which brought together diverse beliefs, was founded in the second half of the nineteenth century by Baha-ullah (1817-1892) and promulgated by his son Abdul Baha (1844-1921). In this carefully staged studio portrait, a young Abdul Baha stands in the back row, holding a portrait of his father, which marks both the visual and psychological center of the composition. The clearly visible framed portrait emphasizes Baha-ullah's absence and transforms the image from a family portrait to one closely identifiable with the founding of Baha'ism. The elderly gray-haired woman, Susan Moody, was another key figure in the Baha'i movement. Born in Amsterdam, New York, she was a pioneer in advocating education and health care for women in Iran.
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Woman of the Court with a Portrait of the Emperor Jahangir
India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1603
Opaque watercolor on paper
Lent by Smithsonian American Art Museum; gift of John Gellatly LTS1985.1.354
Indian poets often wrote about lovelorn women who painted their beloved's portrait as a way of expressing their longing. Could this painting of a noblewoman holding a portrait of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (1569-1627) refer to this romantic motif?
Women of the imperial Mughal family lived within formal seclusion (purdah), but portraits of these high-born women were produced - perhaps by talented princesses or through verbal descriptions given to male artists. Although the portrait of the woman is idealized, the lyrical palette and exuberantly swaying plants subtly convey an inner passion.
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The Actor Arashi Kitsusaburo II as Minamoto no Yorimasa
By Ashiyuki (act. ca. 1814-33)
Japan, Edo period, 1822
Woodblock print; ink, color, and metallic pigments on paper
The Anne van Biema Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2004.3.247
During the Edo period (1615-1868) in Japan, fans and admirers collected portraits of their favorite actors in great roles. This portrait depicts kabuki actor Arashi Kitsusaburo II in the role of the twelfth-century Japanese warrior, Minamoto no Yorimasa, who was famous for dramatically vanquishing a nue, a giant supernatural bird.
The unusual inclusion of a frame around the portrait suggests another layer of meaning beyond the memory of an admired actor's performance. The frame is similar to those that surround the painted wooden votive panels people offered to the native Shinto gods (kami) for blessings and protection.
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Family Member
Funerary relief of Haliphat
Syria, Palmyra, Roman Empire, ca. 231
Limestone
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Freer Gallery of Art F1908.236
This bust is from Palmyra, a city in southern Syria that flourished during the Roman Empire as a caravan oasis on trade routes linking the Mediterranean with southwest Asia. Members of Palmyra's prosperous merchant class often commissioned such busts, which covered the openings of burial compartments in family tombs located in the desert outside the city.
Written in Aramaic, the inscriptions carved on this relief identify this figure as a woman named Haliphat and date her death as the year 231. While inscriptions individualized the deceased, funerary sculptures also stressed a collective identity: membership in a particular social class and connection with family.
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Funerary Statues of Male Figures
Yemen, probably from Tamna, ca. 2d-1st century B.C.E.
Travertine
Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn to the Smithsonian Institution
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1986.514 and .508
In the first millennium b.c.e., the kingdoms of Qataban and Saba, in modern Yemen, enriched by the caravan trade in frankincense and myrrh, developed distinctive styles of stone architecture and sculpture. The largest surviving group of sculptures was recovered from cemeteries of family vaults located outside the capitals of the two kingdoms. Most belong to the two types represented here: a standing figure (male or female) carved from a single block or a head (often with inlaid features) inserted into a limestone niche. Both types usually were inscribed with the name of the deceased and his or her father’s name, and featured a schematic treatment of the body but a detailed rendering of facial features. The statues commemorated the deceased as individuals but primarily conveyed the collective identities of family, clan, and tribe.
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Portrait of Shi Wenying (1655–after 1718)
China, Qing dynasty, inscription dated in correspondence with 1716
painting, early 18th century (or possibly a later copy)
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Purchase - Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program
and partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaff
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1991.120
This formal portrait of Shi Wenying (1655-1718), a lieutenant-general of the Chinese Plain White Banner, probably served as an ancestor portrait that kept his family's memory of him alive. It would have been displayed during domestic ritual ceremonies, especially those during the Chinese Lunar New Year. Some families also hung ancestor portraits on occasions when they wanted to report good news - such as introducing a new bride - to a deceased parent.
Shi Wenying received a number of outstanding promotions during his court career. Imperial honors that indicated his high rank include the fur coat and very noticeable peacock feather depicted here. In actuality, the feather hung from the back of the hat and would not have been visible in a frontal portrait. Such symbols were important to descendants, for they reflected family pride and glory.
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Portraits by Theme: Projecting Identity
How would you fashion your portrait for posterity? Which aspect of your complex self would you represent? Would you choose a medium that could disseminate your image widely or would you restrict the viewing of your portrait to friends and family?
Before photography made portraiture broadly accessible and relatively spontaneous, artist, patrons, and subjects made careful choices about the persona that a portrait would project. Many portraits incorporate some degree of imaginative role-playing. Rulers typically commissioned images that announced authority or contributed to the consolidation of power. Other classes of people sought to project social values that garnered respect. All of the Asian portraits displayed here tell us as much about cultural preferences and values as they do about a single person’s life or appearance.
Portraits by Theme: Projecting Identity: Collective Identities
Artists, patrons, and subjects of portraiture often choose to emphasize collective identity over individual lives or social roles. From family to school to the military, the interpersonal relationships depicted in these paintings reveal how portraits commemorate or establish both personal and social bonds.
Six Recruits from the Fraser Album
Attributed to Ghulam Ali Khan
India, state of Haryana, 1815-1816
Watercolor on paper
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1999.1
From swaggering confidence to fragile apprehension, these superbly realized portraits depict the distinctive personalities in an Indian regiment. The young men came from diverse communities in the Himalayan foothills and the area around the capital city Delhi. One soldier - the rajput Ramu - wears the yellow uniform of Skinner's Horse, a renowned regiment founded by the Anglo-Indian James Skinner (1778-1841). Other fighters are portrayed in local dress.
The numbers above the soldiers' portraits correspond to a list of their names, castes, and villages that was written in Persian and translated into English. The Scottish political agent William Fraser - who served the British East India Company, a commercial trading firm that gradually took control of India in order to secure its profits - commissioned the group portrait to remember the bonds he had forged with the men he recruited and commanded.
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Untitled
By Jannane al-Ani (Iraqi, b. 1966)
1996
Color photographic prints from black-and-white internegatives
Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1998.112.1–.2
Jananne al-Ani addresses the issue of identity and its shifting parameters in this pair of large-scale photographs. She presents five women - her three sisters, her mother, and herself - according to age and in progressive stages of veiling. By reversing the seating order al-Ani presents each woman, except for the central figure, both veiled and unveiled. The portraits oscillate from the impersonal and anonymous to the unique and individual, from 'Western' to 'Oriental.' The doubling and reversal further turns the viewer's attention to the way all portraiture obscures and reveals identity. After all, portraits can only depict selective aspects of a sitter.
In this photograph al-Ani is the second figure from the right, with her face revealed; in the one on the next screen, she is the second figure from the left, with only her eyes visible. By including herself among the female members of her family, she adds a personal dimension to her larger investigation into gendered and cultural representation. Although they all adopt the same solemn expression, each woman, if only for a moment, demands the viewer's attention as an independent individual existing within a larger construct.
Image 2 of 6
Untitled
By Jannane al-Ani (Iraqi, b. 1966)
1996
Color photographic prints from black-and-white internegatives
Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1998.112.1–.2
Jananne al-Ani addresses the issue of identity and its shifting parameters in this pair of large-scale photographs. She presents five women - her three sisters, her mother, and herself - according to age and in progressive stages of veiling. By reversing the seating order al-Ani presents each woman, except for the central figure, both veiled and unveiled. The portraits oscillate from the impersonal and anonymous to the unique and individual, from 'Western' to 'Oriental.' The doubling and reversal further turns the viewer's attention to the way all portraiture obscures and reveals identity. After all, portraits can only depict selective aspects of a sitter.
In the photograph on the previous screen al-Ani is the second figure from the right, with her face revealed; in this one, she is the second figure from the left, with only her eyes visible. By including herself among the female members of her family, she adds a personal dimension to her larger investigation into gendered and cultural representation. Although they all adopt the same solemn expression, each woman, if only for a moment, demands the viewer's attention as an independent individual existing within a larger construct.
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Portraits of a Qing Dynasty Nobleman and Wife
China, Qing dynasty, 19th century
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Purchase—Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program
and partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaff
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S1991.105 and .117
These portraits were created as a pair for use in annual rites to venerate departed parents. The depiction of this couple with the same chair, carpet, and furnishings strongly suggests that both paintings were produced with stencils at the same time. Many ancestor portraits were fabricated with the faces left blank; when the person died, the face was painted in freehand. The carpet pattern of cranes, symbols of immortality holding other symbols of longevity in their beaks, underscores the idea that ritual creates a lasting bond between living and dead family members.
Chinese families traditionally trace descent through the male line, so men's portraits were the only ones required for rituals. Since women were deeply honored as mothers, and most sons are emotionally attached to their mothers, men routinely commissioned portraits of both parents. Nonetheless, the husband's portrait was usually hung to the right of his wife's image - a more auspicious position.
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Child Acrobats
Japan, Meiji era, late 19th century
Photograph; albumen print with hand coloring
Purchase and partial gift of Henry and Nancy Rosin
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives R234
The medium of the photograph creates a strong illusion of capturing a moment of reality, although in fact this image was carefully staged. Their contorted poses identify these children as members of an acrobatic troupe and their costumes indicate that they are not Japanese, though their names are not known. Foreign performers became popular in Japanese cities beginning in the Edo period (1615-1868). Photographs like this one were created for sale mainly to foreign visitors to Japan.
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High School
High School Uni-Face: Girl
By Do-ho Suh (b. 1959)
1997
Computer-generated color photograph
Edition of six, exhibition copy, LM6691
Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York ELS2006.2.2
High School Uni-Face: Boy
By Do-ho Suh (b. 1959)
1997
Computer-generated color photograph
Edition of six, exhibition copy, LM4989
Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York ELS2006.2.1
In these works and that on the next screen, artist Do-ho Suh explicitly addresses the concept of identity from a transnational and a Korean perspective by creating a visual oscillation between the individual and the larger social collective, represented by his high-school class. Suh is interested in exploring the tension 'between the singular and the plural. In the Korean language there is no such distinction.'
Uni-face Girl and Uni-face Boy are computer-generated images of Suh's female and male classmates, respectively, combined to create a single likeness.
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Portraits by Theme: Projecting Identity: Gendered Identities
Across pre-modern Asia, artists employed subtly or markedly different visual conventions in portraits of women. Many cultures idealized portraits of high-born women because they were not supposed to be publicly viewed. Women were also depicted in certain roles deemed appropriate to their gender, such as wife, mother, beloved, or object of desire. Nevertheless, historical portraits of queens reveal that politically powerful women could and did appropriate modes of representation usually reserved for men.
Bowl
Iran, Saljuq dynasty, late 12th–early 13th century
Stone-paste body painted under glaze and over glaze with enamel (mina'i)
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1927.3
Few contemporary viewers would recognize the stylized central figure as a possible portrait. But the artist incorporated several visual clues to identify his subject as the Indian Princess Sapinud. The princess was the wife of the Sasanian king Vahram V, better known in Persian history and literature as Bahram Gur (reigned 420-438).
An image of a large elephant with three riders anchors the center of the eight-lobed bowl. Princess Sapinud rides upon an elaborate litter (hawda) that was reserved for noblewomen, especially brides. A partially clad attendant - a rare representation of a dark-skinned person on a medieval Persian ceramic - rides behind her.
The carefully rendered, striding Indian elephant, the litter, and the servant identify the woman as Bahram Gur's Indian bride.
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Portrait of the Poet Saigū no Nyōgo Yoshiko from the Agedatami version of Thirty-six Immortals of Poetry
Painting attributed to Fujiwara Nobuzane (1176?-1265?); calligraphy attributed to Fujiwara Tame'ie (1198–1275)
Japan, Kamakura period, early 13th century
Segment from a handscroll, mounted as a hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on paper
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1950.24
This painting was once part of a handscroll depicting the Thirty-six Immortals of Poetry (Sanjūrokkasen), one of the earliest versions of this subject in existence. These poets, who lived at various times, were selected based on the merits of their work. Princess Saigū no Nyōgo (929–985), the poet with the highest rank, reclines on a raised mat (tatami) whose striped pattern signifies her imperial rank. A lacquered box for her writing brush and ink lies in front of her. Though customs of the time required women of high rank to be concealed from public view, the artist provides a privileged bird's-eye perspective that allows us to see the princess behind the curtain.
A biography of the princess written in Chinese characters is followed by one of her poems:
With the sound of the koto
The wind in the pines
of the mountain peak
Seems to ask
With which note shall I begin?
Translation by Ann Yonemura
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Mirror Case with Portrait
By 'Abid
India; interior portrait: Imperial Mughal, by 'Abid, dated 1628;
exterior paintings and mirror case, late 17th–mid-18th century; hinges, 19th century
Lacquer over wood, opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper
Purchase, Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art
Freer Gallery of Art F2005.4
Portraits of women at the Mughal court are rare, and this portrait's eroticism is unprecedented. Comparing the generic face of the beauty depicted on the back cover of the mirror case (detail, lower right) with this woman's somewhat pointed nose and smallish eyes, however, gives the sense that this is a specific person.
The portrait's exquisite refinement, the artist's renown, and the painting's date suggest that it was produced for Emperor Jahangir (1569-1627) or his son Shah Jahan (1592-1666), the builder of the Taj Mahal. The small oval painting clearly was valued long after those who knew the woman had passed away. It was placed against the sparkling ground and set within the mirror case almost a century after its creation.
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Courtesans
Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh Young Leaves: The Courtesan Nanasato of the Yotsumeya with Her Attendants Nanaji and Satoji
By Isoda Koryūsai (1735–1790)
Japan, Edo period, 1778–1780
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
The Anne van Biema Collection, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2004.3.27
The Courtesan Sugawara of Tsuruya Dreaming of Wealth and Prosperity
By Isoda Koryūsai (1735–1790)
Japan, Edo period, ca. 1778
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
The Anne van Biema Collection, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2004.3.26
Courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure district were objects of desire and fantasy, celebrated for their beauty and admired for their literary or artistic skills. These prints are part of a series that depicted famous courtesans and listed their names and the names of their brothels. Color prints of courtesans often show them posed in rich costumes and in their private quarters, which few of the people who bought the prints ever actually visited.
On the right, Sugawara, a courtesan at Tsuruya, a famous brothel in the Yoshiwara district, has fallen asleep leaning against a Chinese-style lacquer writing desk. Daikoku, a god of good fortune who promises prosperity and wealth, appears in her dream, shown here in the cloud arising from her chest. The inscription indicates that this, her first dream of the New Year, portends good fortune for the months ahead. On the left, a senior courtesan wears her most luxurious and fashionable kimono and parades with an entourage that includes younger attendants and adolescent apprentices. Although the representations in the 'Models for Fashion' series were stylized, contemporary audiences understood that the images were portraits of specific women.
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Empress Dowager Cixi in a Snowy Palace Garden
By Yu Xunling (1874–1943)
China, Qing dynasty, 1903–1904
Modern print from a glass negative
Purchase
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, negative number SC-GR-262
Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), standing in the center, radiates the confidence of someone who reputedly once proclaimed, 'I am the most clever woman who ever lived.' At the twilight of imperial China, between 1861 and 1908, the empress dowager served as regent and a powerful behind-the-scenes leader, rare roles for a woman in China. Scholars still debate whether the empress dowager was a ruthless dictator or unfairly manipulated by strong male advisers.
The photographer, Yu Xunling, was a Manchu nobleman who spent part of his youth in Paris. Here he captures the empress dowager posing with a white scarf, a common attribute of Manchu noblewomen, and holding a branch of artificial plum flowers. In China, the winter blooming plum signifies moral purity and female beauty, traits Empress Dowager Cixi associated with herself.
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Veiled Woman with Pearls
By Antoin Sevruguin (late 1830s-1933)
Iran, 1890-1900
Modern print from a glass negative
Myron Smith Bement Collection
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, negative number 2.07
In a careful blend of the 'Orient' and the 'Occident,' this studio portrait presents a woman in traditional Persian costume, adorned with several less-than-traditional strings of pearls and wearing a diaphanous veil over her face. While the photograph can be interpreted as a stereotype of the exotic Oriental woman, Antoin Sevruguin also made the portrait more personal and distinct. The woman's pose, her serene expression, and her closed eyes not only distance her from the viewer, they also give the portrait individuality and a sense of arresting mystery that is absent from most other stereotypical nineteenth-century photographs of Near Eastern women. As an Armenian living and working in Iran, Sevruguin was both a detached observer and a sympathetic insider, qualities that set apart photographs such as Veiled Woman with Pearls from other anonymous portraits.
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Portraits by Theme: Projecting Identity: Devotional Identities
Portraits created for sacred spaces or rituals may serve as sites of divine embodiment or act as conduits between human lives and the divine world. Even portraits made for or viewed within secular spaces can convey religious devotion or sectarian affiliation as an aspect of human identity.
Nobleman and Woman as Lamps of Fortune (Dipalakshmi)
India, Karnaktaka, Nayak period, 17th century
Bronze
Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery S2000.9.1–.2
These bronze images from south India depict a smiling husband and wife holding aloft shallow basins that were used as oil lamps. The lamps flanked an image of a deity within the sanctum of a Hindu temple. Their robust bodies, swaying postures, chins shaped like mango stones, tight smiles, and large, staring eyes are probably less a reference to their physical appearances than to contemporary ideals of beauty.
Casting a portrait in bronze was an expensive undertaking, suggesting that these subjects came from the noble or possibly the merchant class. By commissioning such portraits, the elite of the Nayak period (seventeenth century) sought to express their eternal spiritual devotion. Giving the lamps to the temple also secured a couple’s social status and spiritual merit.
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Hindu manuscript cover representing King Shrinivasa Malla
Nepal, city of Patan, 17th century
Opaque watercolor and gold on wood
Anonymous gift, Arthur M. Sacker Gallery S1995.91a–b
King Shrinivasa Malla (1661-1684) received spiritual merit for commissioning this sacred manuscript, a pious act that is reiterated in his portrait as a devotee bearing a lotus offering. The similarity between the lotus blossom and the king's red-tinged eye visualizes a poetic metaphor of ideal beauty that first emerged in ancient India. Although we cannot name the king's Brahmin priest depicted on both covers or the royal elephant receiving the priest's offerings, they were undoubtedly well known at the Nepalese court. These images also may have been viewed as portraits.
Both paintings are located on the interior faces of the wooden covers. The outer covers, which were the visual focus of devotees during rituals, bear representations of deities.
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Queen Dipa Malla as the Goddess Prajnaparamita
Nepal, 14th century
Gilt copper with traces of cold gold and blue pigment
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art F1986.23
Little is known about Queen Dipa Malla, the regent of a small kingdom in the western reaches of Nepal during the fourteenth century. This portrait implies that the queen identified with Prajnaparamita, the Buddhist personification of wisdom. Worship of the image within a shrine would have accrued spiritual merit for the queen.
In both Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms, the ideal qualities of rulers were conveyed through portraits that gave human monarchs the incorruptible and perfect bodies of deities. By implication, a ruler so depicted also personified the divine being's benevolent nature or vast powers.
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The Qianlong Emperor as Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom
Imperial workshop, with face by Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining, 1688–1766)
China, Qing dynasty, mid-18th century
Ink and color on silk
Purchase - Anonymous donor and museum funds
Freer Gallery of Art F2000.4
This portrait epitomizes the multifaceted identities of Chinese emperors in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Its emphatically multicultural nature mirrors the cosmopolitan court and realm of the Qianlong emperor (reigned 1736-96). He asked Giuseppe Castiglione, an Italian missionary, to paint his face because he believed that the handful of Western Jesuit artists residing at his court were the best portraitists of his day. A Manchu who ruled over China, the emperor was portrayed in the center of a thangka, a Tibetan Buddhist religious painting. The emperor had himself depicted as a manifestation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva (enlightened being) of wisdom - astutely positioning himself in the Buddhist hierarchy that was important to the Mongol and Tibetan residents of the empire.
The thangka's inscription, in Tibetan, uses Buddhist cultural rhetoric to legitimate Qianlong:
Wise Manjushri, king of the dharma, lord who manifests as the leader of men.
May your feet remain firmly on the Vajra throne.
May you have the good fortune that your wishes are spontaneously achieved.
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Empress Dowager Cixi Posing as Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion
Photograph by Yu Xunling (1874-1943)
China, Qing dynasty, summer 1903
Modern print from a glass negative
Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art Study Collection,
negative number FSC-GR-246
In 1903 Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) staged a dress-up event, wearing a Buddha-adorned crown so she could be photographed as Guanyin, a compassionate Buddhist deity who reputedly lived on an island. The empress dowager created a convincing setting, with a painted cloth depicting a bamboo ravine and the floor covered with painted waves and artificial lotuses.
The de facto ruler of China after 1861, Empress Dowager Cixi was thought by many to be a dangerously power-hungry woman. Shrewd and intelligent, she no doubt saw the potential benefits of associating herself with Guanyin, China's most favored female bodhisattva (enlightened being).
Image 5 of 7
Dervish
By Antoin Sevruguin (late 1830s-1933)
Iran, 1890-1900
Modern print from a glass negative
Myron Smith Bement Collection
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, negative number 28.7(7)
Like many nineteenth-century photographers active in the Near East, Antoin Sevruguin was commissioned to depict men and women from different ethnic, religious, and social backgrounds in Iran. Intended largely for a Western audience, especially the new 'armchair tourist,' most of these images were anonymous representations of types and focused on the subject's costume, race, and appearance.
This portrait of a dervish, a follower of the mystical branch of Islam, offers considerable ethnographic information. His tall conical hat, long hair and beard, ample, coarse robe, and ax (tabar) have been long associated with ascetics in Iran. Sevruguin offers far more than a typological photograph, however; the figure turns towards the camera and looks straight into the lens, establishing an immediate and personal relationship with the photographer. A well-established photographer in Iran, Sevruguin may even have known his subject, whom he portrayed with great candor and sensitivity.
Image 6 of 7
Monk as Object of Veneration
Portrait of Gaofeng Yuanmiao
By Chūan Shinkō (act. mid-15th century)
Japan, Muromachi period, 1333–1573
Hanging scroll mounted on panel; ink on silk
Gift of Charles Lang Freer Freer Gallery of Art F1911.317
Portraits of Zen (Chinese: Chan) Buddhist priests are known in Japan as chinzō. Such portraits strive to convey the spiritual enlightenment of the master. The Chinese priest Gaofeng Yuanmiao (1239-1295) was the twenty-eighth in the line of succession from Bodhidharma, the Indian founder of the Chan (Zen) school in China. The Japanese artist Chūan Shinkō was a Zen monk of the Kenchōji temple in Kamakura. He conveyed the severity of Gaofeng's self-discipline through physical features such as his intense gaze, which is described, along with his voluminous hair, in a separate inscription: 'Eyes aglow, one disheveled mass of hair standing upright....'
Image 7 of 7
Portrait of Fujiwara no Kamatari (614-669), accompanied by two sons F1965.1
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