Met gouden haren - blonds and redheads, paintings by van Dyck

Study Head of a Young Woman, circa 1618.

James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, circa 1633-35.

Santa Rosalia, circa 1622-27.

Cupid with love arrows, unknown date.

Allegory of Charity, 1632.

Head of a Young Man, circa 1617-18.

Mary Villiers, Lady Herbert of Shurland, circa 1636.

Self-portrait, circa 1640.

Daedalus and Icarus, circa 1615-25.

Randomly IX

Mary Ruthven, his wife, by Anthony van Dyck, 1639.

Vanitas, by Pietro Negri, 1662.

Unknown, ND.

Elegante au sofa, by Julius LeBlanc Stewart, 1895.

Unknown, ND.

Oedipus confronting the Sphinx, by François-Xavier Fabre, 1806.

Nadezhda Polovtseva, by Charles François Jalabert, circa 1870s.

Giuseppa Carcano, Marchesa di Visconti di Borgorato, by Baron Gérard, 1810.

Unknown, ND.

The King's State Bedchamber, Windsor Castle, by James Roberts, 1855. (Decorated for the visit of the Emperor and Empress of the French.)

María Josefa Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Spain, by Vicente López y Portaña, 1828.
(By the slight discoloration in the paint surface, it's apparent that this was at one time framed as an oval.)

Portrait of a Lady, by François Boucher, circa 1760-70.

"Portrait of Fersen (?)", by Franz Krüger, 1850.

Unknown, ND. (Courtesy Ralf de Jonge.)

Jane Digby, Lady Ellenborough, by Sir William Ross, circa 1825-30.

Portrait of Mrs J., by Józef Męcina-Krzesz, 1912.

Alexander Filippovich Kokorinov, by Dmitry Levitsky, 1769.

Reference Nude, by sculptor Jacques de Lalaing, circa 1880s-90s.

Unknown, ND.

Triple portrait of mignons of Henri III, by Lucas de Heere, circa 1570. (For the record, these are all young men.)

The coffins of Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and two of her children, in the Mausoleum at Darmstadt, by  Heinrich Reinhard Kroh, 1879.

Unknown, circa 1850. (Sisters...?)

Four African American women at Atlanta University, Georgia, 1899.

Etude d'homme allongé sur une balustrade, by Carolus-Duran,1875.

Study of a Swimmer, by J. C. Leyendecker, circa first quarter of the twentieth century.

Unknown, circa 1920s.

The Maid, by Wilhelm August Lebrecht Amberg, 1862.

Portrait of a young lady with a white veil, French School, circa 1800.

Study of a man, by Anton Ažbe, 1886.

HRH Prince Bertil of Sweden, unknown photographer, 1934.

Sarah Siddons, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1804.

Johanna Sacco as Medea, by Joseph Hickel, 1786.

Narcissus, by Jan Cossiers, 1636-38.

Francis George “Kicho” Harrison, by George Platt Lynes, 1940.

The calculated pose - gestural male portraits

Portrait of a Young Man (thought to be a self portrait), by Michiel Sweerts, 1656.

History shows us that, when posing for his portrait, the male is quite as likely as his female counterpart to strike the telling attitude, to make a calculated declaration of self for posterity. Whether it reads as pompously aggressive, "artistic", elegantly pensive, seignorial, or self-consciously "natural", it all comes down to a personal propaganda.

Portrait of a Young Nobleman in Hunting Dress, by Nicolas de Largillière, circa 1730.

Portrait of a Young Man, by Bronzino, circa 1530s.

Portrait of a Man in Armour (French Marshal), by Sébastien Bourdon, circa 1760s.

James II when Duke of York, by Sir Peter Lely, circa 1665-70.

John Bours, by John Singleton Copley, 1763.

A Portrait of a Man in Armour, by Jacopo Bassano, circa 1560.

Unknown, circa 16th century.

François Boucher, by Gustaf Lundberg, 1741.

Count Kirill Razumovsky, by Jean-Louis Tocqué, 1758.

The Artist in His Museum, by Charles Willson Peale, 1822.

Self-Portrait (Man with Leather Belt), by Gustave Courbet, 1845-46.

Self-Portrait, by Anthony Van Dyck, 1634.

Self-portrait, by Paulus Moreelse, circa 1630-34.

Self-Portrait, by Charles-Antoine Coypel, 1734.

Sir Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1782.