Fellowship of Christians in Portraiture

Dr. Bryant M. Kirkland

Essays of Special Significance

The Divine Light in Portrait Painting
by The Reverend Dr. Bryant M. Kirkland

Distinguished minister, author, conference speaker, Dr. Bryant M. Kirkland served the Presbyterian Church (USA) in pastorates in New York City (Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church), Washington, D.C. (National Presbyterian Church), Tulsa, Oklahoma, (First Presbyterian Church) and others. In addition he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Bible Society. Dr. Kirkland was the author of numerous books, including Home Before Dark, A Pattern For Faith, Living in a Zigzag Age, Growing in Christian Faith, Experiencing God in Unexpected Places, and others. In March of 2000, John Howard Sanden asked Dr. Kirkland to write a foreword for a forthcoming book of Sanden's collected portraits. On Easter Sunday, 2000, just over a month after composing this foreword. Dr. Kirkland died in Richmond, Virginia. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Psalm 116:15.

he painting of a portrait can be a spiritual experience both for the painter and the subject, because an adequate reproduction of a human personality involves discernment of the light shining within.

Dr. Bryant Kirkland and John Sanden at the unveiling in New York of the portrait honoring Dr. Kirkland's service as President of the American Bible Society, 1991.

Part of the illumination also shines out of the inner perception and intuition of the painter. It takes a clear eye to interpret the meanings of the lights and shadows playing across the features of the model. The history of a person's inner battles is hinted in the gentle creases and furrows around the eyes and across the brows, and even more deeply graven in the secrets of the heart. Perception, not just pigments, creates a memorable portrait. Both the beholder and the beheld engage in a stylistic dialogue, which gently reveals the hopes and fears, the dreams and memories of the subject. Little clues and hints emerge in the growing confidences exchanged while brush strokes fly or are poised in contemplation.

Jesus talked about the light that lighteth every person who comes into the world. He also warned that if that light is shrouded, how great is the inner darkness. And that applies to both the subject and the artist. It takes inner clarity to perceive and interpret the light within another person. Portrait painting is spiritual interpretive art — not chemical photography.

The subject wants to be seen in the best light and to be remembered as having reached somewhere near his dreams, for lurking in every portrait is the shadow of mortality and the yearning for immortality.

Here is where the artist is also a philosopher and a therapist as he or she helps the subject to express his hidden aspirations and sketch his dreams. The imagination of the artist can help to fulfill the vision by the placing of light, by the careful selection of suggested icons, symbolic mementos, and interpretive fabric designs.

Quite obviously Jesus of Nazareth never painted any portraits in oils, but He sketched unforgettable portraits with bold strokes in brief words. Who can forget the face of the anguished prodigal son, the tortured countenance of St. Peter in the hour of his denial at early cockcrowing, the fearful pride of Pontius Pilate in his imperious judgment, the unbelieving relief in the eyes of the woman caught in the act of adultery and forgiven. Jesus recognized the importance of the inner light flashing all over the countenance of a person to reveal the inner hopes and fears, the defeating dreads and the exalting aspirations toward a noble life.

No one ever forgets the artist or the experience of having one's portrait painted because it is a soul searching inner experience. Likewise even the casual stranger engages in further silent reflective dialogue with any portrait she may confront. What was the person like? What are the clues in the sitting that reveal the story and character of the person on the canvas? What did the artist reveal? Silently the viewer reflects upon his or her own life, the meaning of eminence and the immanence of immortality.

[The sensitive artist] knows how to paint light because he recognizes the spiritual light shining out of every person, as well as the spiritual light shining from God into every human being. He recognizes that a portrait is not only a picture of reflected light and shadows on a person's visage, but it is also an intuitive glimpse of the light shining from within a persons' heart, mind and soul. That is why this collection of selected distinguished portraits is a memorable gallery of the nobility of the human spirit striving to express the divine light that lighteth every person.

Bryant M. Kirkland
Minister Emeritus, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York.