Monday Inspiration: Anna (Nan) Cheney

Anna Cheney, Portrait of a young Man, 1936, (source)

Anna Gertrude Lawson Cheney (1897-1985), studied at a bunch of different places, Newcombe Art College, the School of Medical Illustration, Johns Hopkins. She studied with Lilias Torrance Newton (whose influence is strongly seen here I think), Aldro Hibbard, and was a close friend of Emily Carr. She painted landscapes and worked mostly on the west coast of Canada.

I think this portrait is superb- I love that slightly off feeling in portraits. It's obviously not trying to capture an exact copy of the person- and though it's close to what he looked like I'm sure- you wonder if his neck was really that long, and nose quite so perfect. I think though- this style of portraiture is often much closer to capturing the soul of the person- or the feel of them- you get a sense of presence that you don't always get with a more exact image. It's terribly intimate, as I think a painting of another person should be, sometimes a technically perfect portrait feels cold to me- this exudes warmth.