The other day I happened to glance into a dim and little-visited corner of my studio and saw "The Birthday Girl," a portrait of a woman in a yellow dress wearing an enormous, broad-brimmed hat. The painting was a portrait study based on photographic references from an online acquaintance. We were both habitues of an online painting group and he had been doing portraits in a mall window. A group of ladies of a certain age, clearly celebrating, came by and caught his eye and he caught theirs. They group was celebrating the birthday of one. He allowed me to use his photos. I suppose you could call this study a tronie.
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| "The Birthday Girl," oil on canvas, 24x18 |
Tronie is a 16th century Dutch term that indicated the kind of stock character we've all seen in television, videos, and so on--the drunk, the obnoxious character, etc. The word tronie actually means face, with the understanding we're discussing a common expression, or gesture or a recognizable
costume. Rembrandt, Hals and numerous others produced memorable tronies.
Hals in particular. Others Fragonard to Franz Messerschmidt to Norman Rockwell produced images that arguably are tronies. The Birthday Girl fits the tradition.
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