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hank1 — Portrait of Ayn Rand
Published: 2008-04-20 15:55:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 6544; Favourites: 84; Downloads: 1
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Description
Oils on panel14 x 12"
1999
My favorite author. There is no color photo of this. My reference is a B & W photo on the back of the book "The Early Ayn Rand". It's a photo of her as she looked just having arrived in the United States from the Soviet Union (she was born in Russia), never to return, as she loved the United States passionately even before she got the hell out of the Soviet Union. Drab dress with a little tear, the kind of dress her hear-to-for wealthy family was reduced to after the Soviets destroyed Russia, nationalizing her father's pharmacy. I imagined all the color, and that surely she would have found a way to put some color, a flower or something in that torn dress.
I don't imagine anyone would care about this painting unless they know her story. The greatest author and philosopher in history. Not a pretty woman, but she made a point of making herself attractive as she could during her great life.
By the way her book "Atlas Shrugged" is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club.
My portrait is featured in the new book The Selfish Path to Romance. [link]
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Comments: 142
Ah! I just found Ayn Rand, and I love her! Though, someone told me that she isn't taken seriously anymore...I can't imagine why! Atlas Shrugged has changed my life!
Anyway, I like the painting. The colors and tones are all lovely, and I think it does fair justice to this great woman. Great job!
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Neil,
Thank you very much for the compliments.
Ayn Rand is not taken seriously by pretentious, hateful, professional philosophers. It doesn't matter. Her philosophy of Objectivism is taken seriously by a growing number of serious professional philosophers, thinkers and ordinary readers of her works. Importantly, there's The Ayn Rand Institute [link] and The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, a public policy and media center in Washington, DC. [link]
Keep reading her works. "Atlas Shrugged" has changed your life. As it did mine some 40 years ago. It only takes one active mind to be reached by her to make a difference in the world. I've read every thing ever published by her, and more than once.
Robert
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You're welcome.
And thank you for the links. I didn't want to reply and have your message leave my inbox until I'd used them.
I'm starting an introductory book on Objectivism soon. I think I'll read The Fountainhead soon, as well. Anyway, thanks again.
By the way, I saw this piece on my page under 'random favorites,' and I was happy to have added it. Great work again!
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Decided to stop by again. Not sure why I had not favorited this painting already. A beautiful interpretation of the photo. What a woman.
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Glad to see you again, Grant.
Yes, what a woman. What a great mind.
Thank you for the compliment.
Robert
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From what I've read of her, she was always self-conscious of her Russianness and/or Slavicness. She didn't like her accent because it reminded her of her desolate country.
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Could be.
Her accent is to me rather interesting. How on earth did she manage to write in such perfect English!
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News article feature [link] here
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MOAR,
Thank you very much.
Robert
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I love her book Atlas Shrugged.
She is a true genius.
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I'd argue Hegel or Quine was more important, but that's up for debate.
Wonderful play of light across the face, although the left eye seems slightly disjoint from the left.
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Hegel! Sure is up to debate.
Thank you for the positive comment. And you did notice the slight error. I let it go when I painted this portrait in 1984 (the copy right is 1999 because I had sold this piece then traded it back to the owner for a different work. The painting had a 2 inch scratch I had to repair.). And I let it go again in 1999 even though by then I might have had the skills to correct it, on the premise I've read by one of the Renaissance Masters that "in all portraits there is one good eye, and the other." And to keep it as it was painted originally. And how was that done? If you've seen the B & W Photo, you'll know that there is no left eye to work with it's so deep and merged in shadow. What I did was to hold a mirror to her right eye to create any eye at all.
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Amazing work! Rand is my favorite author too!
"The greatest author and philosopher in history".
Yes... the greatest author!
Thanks for the beautiful work, dear friend.
Tina
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Thank you Tina, dear friend.
And thank you for the best artwork I've ever seen done of the hero of Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". [link]
Robert
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Have a nice day, dear!
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Awesome work..Loved specular and midtones..Brilliantly done Sir..All the best..God bless ya..Take carez..Cheers
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Thank you dear Hasan.
Take care yourself, and cheers!
Robert
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I'll just say is you did an amazing job of creating her in colours, such a beauty !!!
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Thank you for that Jasmin, much appreciated.
Robert
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A beautiful tribute to a brilliant author
I first read Atlas Shrugged when I was 16. At the time the thing that stuck in my mind was the "little bracelet made of blue-green metal", and John Galt's oration ending abruptly when I discovered that the library copy was missing the last 30 or so pages.
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Danny,
Thank you very much.
Why not get to those "last 30 pages or so"? Yes, in real life blue-green was Rand's favorite color.
Robert
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Nicely Done, the technique and shape of the canvas marry up well
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Thank you very much Dusan.
Robert
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The bigger image helps - you included much detail and texture in this painting. This portrait belongs in a place where it can inspire daily, but I fear that hanging it in my office would cut my career short (I'm in public education).
I read Atlas Shrugged as a teenager and it has helped define my philosophy ever since. For years I was a radical rational egoist, but I find that as I live my life I develop values that I can't rationally explain. I still subscribe to Rand's economic theories, but as a Christian and a father I find that I hold myself to standards that she opposed. One important principle sticks with me: no person has an obligation to me or society.
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On March 20, the Smithsonian looked at it five time in two days. But they prefer portraits painted from life.
You have taken what matters to you from Rand's philosophy. This, I submit, is rational egoism. And I fully understand what fatherhood does for one. You become moral, no matter what form as long as it's base is essentially reasonable to you. It sure shows in your work. The photo I commented on is so exquisitely loving it tells the viewer what kind of man you are.
Take care my friend,
Robert
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A worthy portrait of a worthy visionary. While her social theory (Objectivism?) may not include the answer to everything, there is so much wisdom, truth, and powerful insight in it that I find it no mystery Atlas Shrugged is the second most-influential book in the U.S..
Artistically, I think your coloring is wonderful--it has the feel of a Carl Bloch painting of a New Testament scene, and she's a worthy subject for the treatment.
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It is an amazing book, Atlas Shrugged. I never knew it was the second most influential book in the U.S., though--what's the first most influential?
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Well, I think it's the Holy Bible, isn't it? Either that or the "Unholy" one... 
But, yes, it is definitely an amazing book. I don't know how much of a societal or lifestyle model can be built from what it has to say, but it just beats Socialism to a bloody, pulpy mess. 
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I have yet to try, but I think that it really can be used in everyday life.
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The Atlantean mantra is sure a good thing to keep in mind. Check out ~Lizzy-Barry 's signature quote on her comments.
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I had no idea you liked Rand's work too.
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Oh, yes. I loved Atlas Shrugged, and I think she really had a notion about the strengths of capitalism and the weaknesses of socialism. Definitely a worthy read. 
Your signature quote is a maxim I live by, although some of my actions might be interpreted differently by others.
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I think so...it's been a while.
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Thank you Jeff.
Actually, Rand didn't really have a "social theory". She did have some thoughts on society, e.g., "Modern collectivists...see society as a super-organism, as some supernatural entity apart from and superior to the sum of its individual members." Yes she advocated selfishness which in her view is simple having concern with one's own interests. But Objectivism is a total philosophy. Rand wrote, "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows....This--the supremacy of reason--was, is and will be the primary concern of my work, and the essence of Objectivism."
Again, thank you very much for the compliment on the art of my piece.
Robert
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nothing can measure upto this painting of yours!
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Why thank you very much dear Rinx.
Robert
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awesome painting of the awesome writer!
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I had submitted this long ago but it was a small file and photographed with an inferior camera. I even earned a DD for it. But for some reason I couldn't edit the deviation with this new large file, try as I might. So here it is again.
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