William Shew's Daguerreotype Saloon, Roger Fenton's Photographic Van and Mathew Brady's What-is-it? wagon set the standards for making portraits and other photographs in the field. Subjects were generally seated against plain backgrounds and lit with the soft light of an overhead window and whatever else could be reflected with mirrors.ДЄs photographic techniques developed, an intrepid group of photographers took their talents out of the studio and onto battlefields, across oceans and into remote wilderness. The style of these early works reflected the technical challenges associated with 30-second exposure times and the painterly aesthetic of the time. Studios sprang up in cities around the world, some cranking out more than 500 plates a day. The popularity of the daguerreotype in the middle of the 19th century was due in large part to the demand for inexpensive portraiture. Since the dawn of photography, people have made portraits. Many people enjoy having professionally made family portraits to hang in their homes, or special portraits to commemorate certain events, such as graduations or weddings. Portrait photography is a popular commercial industry all over the world. What has been claimed as the world's oldest known portrait was found in 2006 in the Vilhonneur grotto near AngoulГЄme and is thought to be 27,000 years old. One of the best-known portraits in the Western world is Leonardo da Vinci's painting titled Mona Lisa, which is a painting of Lisa del Giocondo. There is particular emphasis on the representation of the details of headdresses, hairstyles, body adornment and face painting. To date, no portraits of women have been found. They were represented during several stages of their lives.

The individuals portrayed were members of the ruling elite, priests, warriors and even distinguished artisans. The individuals portrayed would have been recognizable without the need for other symbols or a written reference to their names. These works accurately represent anatomical features in great detail. Moche culture of Peru was one of the few ancient civilizations which produced portraits. True portraits of the outward appearance of individuals re-emerged in the late Middle Ages, in tomb monuments, donor portraits, miniatures in illuminated manuscripts and then panel paintings. (Compare the portraits of Roman Emperors Constantine I and Theodosius I at their entries.) In the Europe of the Early Middle Ages representations of individuals are mostly generalized. During the 4th century, the portrait began to retreat in favor of an idealized symbol of what that person looked like. The art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. Although the appearance of the figures differs considerably, they are considerably idealized, and all show relatively young people, making it uncertain whether they were painted from life. These are almost the only paintings from the classical world that have survived, apart from frescos, though many sculptures and portraits on coins have fared better. Some of the earliest surviving painted portraits of people who were not rulers are the Greco-Roman funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypt's Fayum district. 2144вЂ“2124 BC, show a consistent appearance with some individuality, although it is sometimes disputed that these count as portraits. The 28 surviving rather small statues of Gudea, ruler of Lagash in Sumeria between c. Nonetheless, many subjects, such as Akhenaten and some other Egyptian pharaohs, can be recognised by their distinctive features. Most early representations that are clearly intended to show an individual are of rulers, and tend to follow idealizing artistic conventions, rather than the individual features of the subject's body, though when there is no other evidence as to the ruler's appearance the degree of idealization can be hard to assess. Roman-Egyptian funeral portrait of a young boy

Art portraits