In my computer, I found this zany visual reference file called "haunting portraits," which turns out to be crammed with all manner of junk (comic book covers by Simon Bisley featuring ridiculously muscular savages, selfies of bosomy naked girls, stylish black and white fashion photos from the 50s...), but few actual portraits. Amidst the clutter though, I did find this excellent Sargent oil sketch of the enchanting wife of his friend (and contemporary genius draftsman) Paul Helleu.
This is the kind of thing I can't do to save my life — or perhaps, at best, chancing into it once in a great while... I can get a likeness, but not one that so confidently projects the psychological insight, the feel of the bodily presence, the mood, and the personality of the sitter.
Here are a couple of other great Sargent portraits I found in the mishmash: more polished works, because they were commissioned portraits of wealthy society ladies (although they now mostly circulate as convenient cover illustrations for Henry James novels — to the dismay, no doubt, of distinguished ghosts languidly reclining on the immaculate veranda of some hadean country club)...
And here is a delightful one of the Danish artist Marie Kroyer by her husband P.S. Kroyer:
So fresh and lovely!
And, finally, here — from way back in the day! — is one of my favorite portraits in all of art history:
The Petrus Christus portrait of a beautiful, sullen teenager staring us down through the ages with her taut hair, silly hat, youthful fragility and mysterious poise... This is the one that really does the haunting, don't you agree?
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