Working with her friends, such as photographer Ida Jervis or painter Laura Wheeler Waring, [Alma] Thomas was ever aware of the power of the portrait. Through pose, prop and expression, she collaborated with her colleagues to generate images that seem self-assured and formidable, demonstrating the values that she held for herself and for others.
~FROM https://www.culturetype.com/2021/07/28/on-occasion-of-new-exhibition-alma-thomas-everything-is-beautiful-curators-and-scholars-reflect-on-lesser-known-aspects-of-artists-life-and-work/

[Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun’s] virtuoso portrait of Robert in romantic mode, casually dressed, hair unkempt, palette and brushes in hand, gazing intently into the distance. It was painted in 1788, the year before the French Revolution, when Robert was in his mid-50s. By then he was one of France’s most celebrated and best-paid artists and had a clientèle that included Catherine the Great and the Russian aristocracy.
~FROM https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/arts/international/hubert-robert-and-the-beautiful-ravages-of-time.html

“I knew Alice had a way of painting people so that you saw them in ways you’d never seen them before. I didn’t want to be uncovered in that way. Now I kind of wish I had done it back then—because today I definitely wouldn’t pose in the nude. So anyway, I put on this red dress and my hair was braided with beads, because I had just come back from my trip and I thought the beads would go over well in Ghana and Nigeria, and that I could pass as an African—but they all knew I was American.”
~FROM https://www.culturetype.com/2019/08/27/a-portrait-of-faith-ringgold-painted-by-alice-neel-is-jordan-casteels-favorite-artwork/