Every Picture Tells A Story

My love for portraits began when my mother took me to a portrait exhibition at the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas when I was in high school. I was fascinated and impressed by how much a portrait says about the subject's personality, the artist's feelings toward the subject, or, if it is a self portrait, the artist's feelings about himself. So, when my parents wanted to visit the National Portrait Gallery last weekend, I was thrilled. Thus far, it is my favorite museum/gallery that I have seen in London. As I walked from portrait to portrait, I found it absolutely incredible, unforgettable, to look at people like Catherine Parr and Fanny Burney. I gazed at the contemplative face of William Wordsworth and the austere face of Elizabeth I. It was all so personal, like I was actually meeting these people, brought back to life and forever captured in the paintings.
"Hey, over here," my mom said. I followed her into a room of Romantic poets, and I saw what she meant. There, on the left side of the room, hanging in its own special place at the National Portrait Gallery, was a portrait of Robert Burns. Robert Burns, whose poetry I have spent a fair chunk of my summer studying in order to write my thesis in the spring. Robert Burns, who baffles me by his Scottish lingo. I looked at the Scottish bard, with his rakish features and handsome face, and my heart skipped a beat. Here we were, in what seemed like an opening through time, meeting face to face and shaking hands. That's how I felt when I saw his portrait, at least. How strange, I thought--by seeing a person's face, facial expression, manner of dress, a portrait can elicit such an emotional response. A picture can hold so much information about a person that we sometimes feel we know the person better just by having seen his or her picture. I must admit I took a photo of Burns, even though that is strictly prohibited at the Gallery (but luckily no one saw me). Now, once I print the picture of the picture of Robert Burns, I can always remember the first day I truly laid eyes on him.