Art history is filled with examples of the powerful and the wealthy communicating their status through portraiture. Not just sovereigns, but military leaders, aristocrats, and champions of industry.

For many years, a 19th century painting of three white children in a Louisiana landscape held a secret. Beneath a layer of overpaint meant to look like the sky: the figure of an enslaved youth.

The newly unveiled portrait of former Bowdoin College president Clayton Rose by artist Helena "Lanie" Wurzul simultaneously engages with and eschews conventions of formal portraiture. On September 19, ...

This November, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery will celebrate “Portrait of a Nation,” adding four new works to its collection. This year, the honorees are poet Joy Harjo, academic Temple ...