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| Anonymous French Artist Head of a Woman 18th century drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Giuseppe Baldrighi The Artist with his Wife 1757 oil on canvas Galleria Nazionale di Parma |
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| Antonio Canova Bust of artist Giuseppe Bossi 1816 plaster Detroit Institute of Arts |
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| workshop of Antonio Canova Self Portrait ca. 1820-30 marble (reduced copy of tomb bust) Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
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| Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Man in Armour 1868 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Gustave Courbet Woman fallen asleep over her Book 1849 drawing Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| Paul Flandrin Portrait of Hippolyte Flandrin 1835 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Mariano Fortuny after Anthony van Dyck Van Dyck's Self Portrait with Sir Endymion Porter ca. 1910 watercolor and gouache on paper Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| Giovanni Antonio Greccolini Head of a Warrior before 1725 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of a Lady (painted inside the lid of a small box) ca. 1730-70 pigment on gold Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Walt Kuhn Golden and Blue Bolero 1946 oil on canvas Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri |
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| Walt Kuhn Lady in Robe 1935 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Nicolas de Largillière Sheet of Studies before 1746 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| François Lemoyne Portrait of a Young Woman ca. 1727 drawing (study for painting, The Continence of Scipio) Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacobus van Looy Copy of Mummy Portrait from Roman Egypt ca. 1885-87 watercolor Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Pierre-Paul Prud'hon Portrait Study of Dominique Vivant-Denon ca. 1813 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| David Vestal Untitled (Woman at Mirror) ca. 1940-49 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
"What fascinates me most in my profession, much much more than everything else, is the portrait, the modern portrait. I look to achieve it with colour, and surely I am not the only one who looks for things in that direction. I should like – you see, I am not at all saying that I can do it, but anyway, I try to – I should like to make portraits which would appear to people living a century from now like apparitions. Therefore, I do not seek to achieve this through photographic resemblance but by our passionate expressions, by using our knowledge and our modern taste for colours as a means of expressing and intensifying the character."
– Vincent van Gogh, from a letter to his sister Wilhelmina, 5 June 1890