Are Portraits the Art World’s Self Love and Self Obsession?

The Selfie, this profoundly modern, digital evolution of the traditional self-portrait, may be seen as something a little self-obsessive, but actually, how different is that from the ideals of a historical artwork of a portrait? Surely both share the core human impulse to document one’s existence, appearance, and identity. After all, before the invention of photography, a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone, whether it be someone else or the artist’s inquiry into self. A new exhibition with over 40 artists across 100 years exploring British portraiture is at the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery with The Ingram Collection. Find out more here in, Are Portraits the Art World’s Self-Love and Self-obsession? Image on left hand side: General Mohamed Oufkir – Elisabeth Frink.

Selfie Photo

Portraits have always been more than just a record. They have been used to show the power, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter, or a form of learning, questioning and self-expression for the artist with self-portraits. Long before the selfie and the ‘self-editing’ and retouching, these images would almost always been flattering, and painters who refused to flatter tended to find their work rejected. After all, who wants an immortalising portrait of themselves to pass down the family, not looking the best they could be? Portraits have also been a significant source of wages, so they want to get rebooked, and an overflattering work would surely help.

Portraits of People

Portraiture is, in fact, a very old art form, seemingly going back at least to ancient Egypt, where it flourished. The Roman used these images to memorialise the dead and display power through the highly detailed, psychological renderings. Originally restricted to royalty and elites to record their likeness, portraiture expanded in subject matter, eventually incorporating intimate, everyday, and abstract styles. Through the centuries, this subject matter has been returned to time and again, mostly by Western artists, as paintings of people are forbidden in both the Islamic and Jewish faiths

Painting Ideas

But why is it a kind of practice we always see in every generation? There to capture our very human essence, emotion, and likeness, a deeply personal, human fragility, alongside historical and technical challenges. They transcend photography allwoing artists to explore individuality, document subjects for posterity, as well as allow the creator to somewhat translate a person’s soul and, in the case of self-portraits, examine their own identity and skill. 

Lucy Jones, A Handful of Tears, oil on canvas. The Ingram Collection © The Artist. Photo: John-Paul Bland.

Art Exhibitions

We humans are hard-wired to recognise faces, which may well be part of the reason we are compelling subjects. For painters, of course, the human face offers a complex, challenging subject for practising lighting, texture, and anatomy. As for self-portraiture, it could be seen as a convenient, free model for self-reflection, artistic, and psychological study; to try new techniques, or just to practice.

Dorset Museum & Art Gallery

The new exhibition at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, People Watching, seeks to discover what portraits can tell us about the artist and sitter, whether by simply showing what a person looks like, or by capturing an idea or emotion or through representation. The walls offer up, there are over 40 artists on show, no concrete answers, but show moments of contemplation for the viewer as to why this art form is perennially so captivating.

Norman Notley and David Brynley by Elsie Barling ART488

The show takes the unusual angle of breaking down the works into categories. Self-Portraits, from the artist’s gaze. People at Work, craft and character. Beyond the Real, imagination and abstraction. Leisure and Play, moments of joy and relaxation. And Family and Relationships, bond and belonging.

‘We are thrilled and grateful to be working with The Ingram Collection to bring these internationally significant works of art to Dorset, showcasing them alongside our own collection, some of which have never been publicly displayed before.’ 

Dorset Museum & Art Gallery Director Claire Dixon

Another point of difference in this exhibition is the choice of showing early 20th-century works, a time when the camera had overtaken the need for painting images for posterity, and so offering artists less rigid options for exploration and expression

Bridget Riley, Woman at the tea-table not dated, coloured crayons and pastel. The Ingram Collection © The Artist.

Some of the works on show have never been seen before, others are unexpected works from artist who usual practice differs from the piece on show. Take, for example, Elisabeth Frink’s (1930-1993) drawing, never displayed publicly before, of Moroccan General Mohamed Oufkir from a 1966 photograph, which on the surface is relaxed and intimate as though he is a kindly family uncle, when in fact he was involved in the army in the systematic and brutal repression of political opponents.

Others are hunting the self-portrait of the artist RB Kitaj (1932-2007) is included in the show. In Radiant Turquoise Self Portrait (2006) the artist depicts himself with a blue-skinned tint, but the luminous colour also carries an emotional weight. This work, one of the last works he ever produced, is a culmination of Kitaj’s latter period that was punctuated by both critical success and personal grief, as his forlorn expression seems to show. As much as it is a self-portrait, it seems also to be a miroor ot his soul.

RB Kitaj, Radiant turquoise self-portrait, 2006, oil on canvas. The Ingram Collection © R. B. Kitaj Estate.

There are works on show that belong to the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery and others from the Ingram Collection, which has allowed for a reaching exploration, and contemplative set of works on display regarding this perennially popular subject matter.

‘This exhibition is a celebration of the power and versatility of portraiture – how it can reveal, conceal, question and transform. ‘People Watching’ offers a unique opportunity to experience modern British art through the lens of the human face, both familiar and fantastical. We’re proud to collaborate with Dorset Museum & Art Gallery to bring together such an ambitious range of works, some of which have never been seen in public before. It’s a chance to rediscover celebrated names and encounter fresh perspectives from new voices shaping the future of portraiture today.‘

Ingram Collection Director Jo Baring

There are family images, relaxed and happy moments, ones where the sitter is caught, seemingly unaware, domestic life, familial moments, imagined mythic, and even abstract. Oils, metals, woods, and collage, no practice is left out, meaning the observer has time to explore multi-faceted works. The collection of images gives pause to our own questions, musings and self-obsessions about why we are here, what we are doing, and what is the meaning of our place in the world?

The collection offers no clear answers, which makes it a great experiential process of self-reflection and an opportunity to peer into others’ lives, to be nosey if you like. What is clear is that our desire to ‘look’ and ‘experience’ our humanness doesn’t alter with time

Find all the information here on People Watching at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery.org, in collaboration with The Ingram Collection.com, which is on until 10th May 2026.

If you enjoyed reading Are Portraits the Art World’s Self Love and Self Obsession?, then why not read Eros is the Rose of Love here

.Cent Magazine, London. Luxury Mindset