The University of Utah’s magazine describes a new second-floor gallery dedicated to portraiture, from Renaissance paintings to contemporary pieces
Five Centuries on One Wall: The Portrait Hall at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and a Baby Painter Takes Notes
The University of Utah’s magazine describes a new second-floor gallery dedicated to portraiture, from Renaissance paintings to contemporary pieces
By Tinsel Vandergraph, reader and portrait painter, Salt Lake City
Monday, Studio, Brushes in Jar
Dear diary, I read the Fall 2025 issue of the University of Utah magazine and learned that the Utah Museum of Fine Arts has a new Portrait Hall. The article says it transforms the second-floor hallway into a gallery dedicated to the art of portraiture. The opening was in March, according to the page, with no day given and no year stated on the page itself, though it appears in the Fall 2025 issue.
I mention this because I am a painter of babies and I take the date of a portrait seriously.
What the Hall Holds
The article says the collection covers five centuries, from Renaissance paintings to contemporary pieces, and highlights how artists have shown identity, status and personality over time. It does not specify the number of works or describe any individual portrait. It includes no quotes from anyone.
This is a very short article, and I will not pad it. I can tell you only what it says, which is that there is a hall and it is full of faces.
Why Faces
A portrait has three jobs. It records what a person looked like, it says what the person wanted you to think, and it shows what the painter noticed. The article names identity, status and personality, which is a tidy version of the same list.
Babies have no status and little personality that they have chosen. This makes them an honest subject, and a hard one.
My Method
I draw the eyes first, because eyes decide whether a portrait lives. Then the mouth, then the ears, which I always forget. A baby has ears the size of a pastry. The rest, the cheeks and the hair, comes after, in a hurry, because babies move.
I do not claim that this is the method of the old masters. It is the method of a girl with a damp sketchbook and a schedule.
A Plan to Visit
I want to see the Portrait Hall in person. The museum is on the University of Utah campus, as I know from living here, and the hall is on the second floor, as the article says. I do not have opening hours or ticket prices, and I will check the museum’s website before I go.
I will take the sketchbook. I will draw one face. I will not touch the glass.
What I Hope to See
I hope to see a baby. The article does not say whether the collection includes one, and I do not know. The Renaissance painted babies, as I recall, with very serious faces and an air of enormous age. It made them look like small bankers.
I do not wish to say what I have not seen. That is a rule of the diary.
A Note on Church and Art
I was raised to believe that every face is the work of a Maker, and I have no argument with that on a Monday. A portrait is a way of saying, I saw this one. I paint with that in mind. It keeps me honest, and it keeps the babies clean.
I mention it only because a diary should say where its writer sits.
Lights Out
The brushes are in the jar. The window is open. The baby of the day is on the wall, still tacky.
Goodnight, diary. Mind the ears.
Questions From the Reading Circle
Friend one: is it free? I do not know, and the article does not say. Friend two: does it have babies? I do not know. Friend three: can we go together? Yes, on a day when the museum is open and my sitters are asleep.
I wrote all three down and underlined the last.
Portraits at Home
At home we have a wall of faces: grandparents in frames, a great-aunt with a hat, an uncle with a fish. None is by a famous painter. All are by someone who loved them. I would say that is the real definition of a portrait, and the Portrait Hall’s five centuries may well agree.
I intend to find out.
Reading Circle
If you need something to read while the varnish dries, try the Cebu condo saga as told by the comic press: a Manila News report on a broker with three brochures, a London Prat dispatch on British pensioners needing a vicar (direct link https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and a Bohiney piece on two-hour showings. The wider network lives at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try NewsThump, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/