Painted Faces

"I'd rather see a portrait of a dog that I know," said Samuel Johnson, "than all the allegorical paintings ... in the world." That preference is common enough to make portrait painting a profitable sideline for some artists and a posh profession for many. Last week, in an elegantly furnished Park Avenue gallery known as "Portraits, Inc.," sample portraits by 50 of the nation's top practitioners went on display.

Ranging from $300 to $6,000 in price, the paintings had an even greater range in quality. Among the best were solid, highly polished oils by such veteran academicians as Eugene Speicher and Gerald Brockhurst. Among the worst were heavy-handed official portraits of grim bigwigs, cover-girl pictures of their daughters and wives and innumerable sugary pastels of cute kids. As might have been expected, the works of such artists as Peter Kurd and Andrew Wyeth, who paint portraits only on occasion, seemed fresher and more imaginative than those by the full-time portraitists.

For anyone who felt the need for further samples, "Portraits, Inc." was prepared to recommend at least 50 other artists on its list. Calling itself the "Portrait Center of America," the gallery advertises "family portraits, official portraits, miniature portraits, portraits from photographs." It could truthfully add: "portraits of houses and pets, portrait statuettes and portraits of portraits." One artist in the gallery's 100-man stable specializes in copies of other artists' paintings. Explains Mrs. Lois Shaw, the gallery president: "The painter often doesn't do a good job of copying his own work. He's apt to try to improve it."

President Shaw and Gallery Director Helen Appleton Read arrange for sittings and prices, keep a notebook on their artists filled with such useful jottings as "Enjoys putting in animals," and "Won't paint a woman's hair if freshly waved." They never accept payment for portraits until delivered and approved, on the theory that unsatisfactory ones are "bad for the artist and bad for us. There's no public in the attic." But they sadly admit that "Someone always knocks a portrait. We can't guarantee the customer's relatives and friends will like it as much as he does."

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