Curated by Ann Poulson, PhD, Associate Curator of Collections

Over the past few weeks as I’ve been spending the vast majority of my time in isolation, I’ve been thinking a lot about portraits and their almost talismanic quality of bringing us closer to those we love. But what counts as a portrait? Philosopher of art Cynthia Freeland has argued that it must be a recognizable likeness, the image must reflect their inner life, and the sitter must have been complicit (posed). However, each of those qualifications brings up as many questions as it answers, as is evident in reviewing some of the portraits in the Henry’s collection. For insights into the individual works in this presentation, please view the image credits in the slideshow above.