About Face: Creating Your Own Portrait Gallery
We can’t resist a good grouping or a personality-filled portrait collection. When the two come together, as in the above space by Houston-based interior designer Meg Lonergan, the result can be a show-stopping design moment that tells a powerful story while making a statement.
By incorporating portraits into this dining area, Jackson, Mississippi-based Nancy Price Interior Design creates a space that isn’t just inviting, it’s filled with interest. While the proportions of the works are all similar, each painting insists that you pause to take it in, while the neutral furnishings and bright white walls provide the perfect backdrop.
Even the narrowest of spaces can accommodate this look, as proven by the above project by Northern New Jersey-based talent Michael Aiduss. A collection of small framed silhouettes carries the eye upward, and offers a wonderful visual break between the bar cabinet and the fireplace surround. Also eye-catching? The ship tucked into the cabinet above the mantel, which makes us curious about what other treasures this house holds.
Here, Aiduss groups portraits of regal canines in gilded frames in a gorgeous gray living room, creating a cozy and sophisticated space ideal for the design-minded dog lover.
Above, more images of Michael Aiduss’s work highlighting the impact that a personal portrait gallery can have on a space.
Create Your Own Collection
Clockwise from top: A group portrait by an artist represented by Portraits, Inc. in Birmingham; an example of a beautiful portrait of a girl available through Birmingham’s Portraits, Inc; Pair of portraits oil on canvas signed Frieda Muller available from Leslie Hindmann Auctioneers (12 1/2″ x 10 3/4″); Portrait of a Classical Maiden oil on canvas signed Martha Hale (28″ x 24 1/4″) available from Leslie Hindmann Auctioneers.
Top: Trapped by Henry Collins Bispham, oil on canvas (22″ x 36″) available from Doyle New York. Above: Corrie by Frances Mabel Hollams oil on panel (9 13/16″ x 14″), also available from Doyle New York. Top: Framed equestrian oil on canvas painting of a brown horse, 19th century, signed lower right (20.25″ W X 16.5″ H) available from William Word Fine Antiques in Atlanta. Above, left: 19th century giltwood framed oil painting of collie dog in landscape, Signed “W. Gowdry” and dated 1897 (17.25″ H X 21.25″ W X 2″ D) available from William Word Fine Antiques. Above, right: Large gilt framed oil on canvas painting of horses in landscape, signed Albert Clark ca. 1900 (31.5″ W x 25″ H) available from William Word Fine Antiques.
Top: Create your very own ship cabinet along the lines of Michael Aiduss with a shadow box of a three-masted schooner (18″ H x 25″ W) available from Leslie Hindmann Auctioneers. Above: Pair of French enameled plaques, one depicting Francis I in profile, the other Dianne de Poitiers (10 3/8″) available from Leslie Hindmann Auctioneers.
