Portraits?

[bbennett at joymail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19894

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., floridian127 at y... wrote:
> CoS referred to the old headmasters on the wall as portraits. 
> I use portrait to mean professional photograph not painting. I take 
> my own pictures. Pictures do not talk or visit others, they just 
> smile and wave. But didn't someone mention the Headmasters visiting 
> Sir Calahan? I expect paintings to be one-of-a-kinds, otherwise you 
> would have multiple fat ladies wandering around. What are 
considered Portraits in the UK?  

I'm not British, but I draw and do photography. "Portrait" is not a 
term exclusive to any artistic media. Websters Unabridged says the 
following:

portrait \Por"trait\, n. [F., originally p. p. of portraire to 
portray. See Portray.] 1. The likeness of a person, painted, drawn, 
or engraved; commonly, a representation of the human face painted 
from real life.

In portraits, the grace, and, we may add, the likeness, consists more 
in the general air than in the exact similitude of every feature. --
Sir J. Reynolds.

Note: The meaning of the word is sometimes extended so as to include 
a photographic likeness.

Another dictionary (I can't remember which) extended the definition 
to include words, which actually fits quite nicely with the first 
definition above ("the likeness of a person").

B