Which is the first recorded human portrait in history? While some believe it is the 26,000-year-old ivory sculpture discovered at Dolní Věstonice in the Czech Republic, other reports suggest it is a 27,000-year-old drawing of a face discovered in the Vilhonneur grotto in France. There might not be a definitive answer to the question but there is consensus at large that the genre itself is perhaps one of the oldest in art.

An exhibition at Bikaner House in Delhi titled “Portraits in Time” is celebrating the natural instinct to celebrate the human form through 50 works spanning centuries. “This is very relevant today, at a time when we are constantly capturing photographs and documenting the self,” says Sonali Batra, curator and director of Great Banyan Art. “Tracing the evolution of the human face as a site of expression, power and memory, the exhibition approaches portraiture not as a fixed genre but as an evolving inquiry into identity and visibility.”

Presented chronologically, the exhibition traces several trajectories, examining portraiture both as documentation and an interpretative practice, from early European academic realism to the present. The foundation is laid with portrait traditions across European courts in the 18th century and the gradual broadening of patrons and evolution of the form. Reflecting on an 18th century portrait of a Dutch Noblewomen, Batra notes, “Unlike royal court painting in other parts of Europe, Dutch commissions were often made by prosperous merchants, city leaders, and other influential members of society.” Spanish painters, she shares, often emphasised psychological presence over elaborate surroundings.

In the Indian context, the exhibition traces the emergence of academic portrait painting during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when European academic training was introduced through institutions established under the British. “These schools emphasised careful observation of the human figure, encouraging artists to approach portraiture with a heightened sense of realism and individuality. At the same time, artists working within regional courts engaged with and adapted these methods through alternative forms of training,” notes Batra. The several portraits of the royalty from the late 19th century include a JP Gangooly depiction of Wasif Ali Mirza (1875–1959), Nawab of Murshidabad, and P Mukundan Tampi’s portrait of Panapillai Ananthalakshmi Ponnamma, adopted daughter of Maharaja Ayilyam Tirunal of Travancore, one of the earliest patrons of Raja Ravi Varma.

The human figure was to soon become a means of depicting the human condition and complexities of life. The Progressive Artists’ Group, for instance, advocated a bold and experimental visual language. Batra notes: “Drawing upon international movements such as Expressionism and Post Impressionism, their work introduced distortions of form, intensified colour, and a heightened psychological presence, shifting portraiture from outward appearance toward the exploration of the human psyche.”

The showcase includes a HA Gade portrait of his daughter Usha Battish, one of FN Souza’s trademark distorted heads, and a Krishen Khanna canvas of a shrouded figure rendered in textured brushwork.

There is also the self, one of the most introspective examples of portraiture, among the most compelling being a 1962 oil of Shobha Broota, where the young artist gazes at viewers years before she turned to abstraction as a defining aspect of her practice.