Anne Bobroff-Hajal's portraits are held in private collections internationally. Recent portrait commissions include:
- Chief Maurice Zard, Zard Group of Companies, Nigeria.
- Granddaughters of Christine and Serge Seguin, Chairman and CEO, 901D/Shock Tech, NY, and SMAC Groupe (Toulon, France).
- Father and Grandson of Andrew Saunders, Managing Partner of Taconic Tract Developments, New York.
- Children and Grandchildren of Nancy Ment,. President and CEO, Julia Dyckman Andrus Memorial, New York.
- General Eduardo Ermita, Executive Secretary (Chief of Staff) to the President of the Philippines, and His Grandson E. J.
Invitational and juried exhibits:
- THE PORTRAIT, Ely House Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 2008. Juror: Daniel Greene.
- BEAUX ARTS FINALE, Katonah, New York, 2007.
- One-woman show, Whitney Center, Hamden, Connecticut, 2007.
- ART TO THE AVENUE, Greenwich, CT, 2007 and 2008
- WINDOWS TO THE SOUL, Blue Door Arts, Yonkers, New York, 2006.
- FACES OF WINTER 2006, Bendheim Gallery, Greenwich, CT (Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists)
- Mamaroneck Artists Guild, Larchmont, NY: SMALL WORKS, 2007; A BOLD STEP, 2006; BE SEATED, 2006; FREE FALL 2006.
- One-woman event, White Plains City Center, June, 2006, exhibit and talk on portraiture.
- BEAUX ARTS FINALE, Pleasantville, NY, 2006
Bobroff-Hajal's work most recently won first prize in the Portrait category of Katonah, New York's 2007 Beaux Arts exhibit. She won both First and Third Prizes in Westchester's 2006 Beaux Arts Finale.
She has just launched a blog on portraiture on this website: blog.AnneBobroffHajal.com
Bobroff-Hajal has been involved in the field of fine art animation as an executive board member of ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d'Animations – international animated film association). She originated and curated the Jacob Burns Film Center's series Shorts Suite, about which a half-page article appeared in the New York Times Sunday Arts and Leisure section 8/4/02. She created programs for ASIFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City; for example, she conceived, curated, and spoke at "Between Background and Character," showcasing innovative stop-motion-animators' use of 3-dimensional space. She was the Animation Program Advisor for the Jacob Burns Film Center, and was interviewed by local TV's "Spotlight on the Arts." She was featured in "New York vs. Los Angeles," a 9/01 Script magazine article. Her work for New York Women in Film's "Film in the City" was covered in BackStage, indieWIRE and Script magazine.
She is the great-granddaughter of John Becker, head of Louis C. Tiffany's Bronze and Iron Works. John Becker worked closely with Tiffany to create the exquisite bases of Tiffany lamps and all other highly-prized Tiffany bronze items during Louis C. Tiffany's heyday. Many of John Becker's metal works made with Tiffany were exhibited in LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY, ARTIST FOR THE AGES, Toledo Art Museum, 2006.
Bobroff-Hajal has traveled widely and lived in Russia for a year. She has studied history as well as the arts at Sarah Lawrence College.
To me, the essence of a portrait is human expression. I believe the best kind of portrait catches that unique expression that makes you feel most alive with the person you've commissioned a portrait of.
I use every resource available to learn about beloved facial expressions and body language. This generally includes one or all of the following:
- Live interactions and sittings
- Photographs taken by me
- The client's own favorite photographs
An important note about photography in portraiture
The tradition of the unsmiling, unengaged portrait subject comes from the days when the only expressions that could be painted were those a subject could hold for hours while the artist painted. Artists couldn't paint any warm, spontaneous expression because no one can hold a natural-looking expression long enough for an artist to paint it.
Today, almost all portrait artists make use of photographs as they paint. But the esthetic of much fine art portraiture has nonetheless remained frozen in the past, as portraitists strive to camouflage their use of photography. I feel that contemporary portraits should embrace the fact that we can now paint the lively, fleeting expressions that photography helps us capture.
Yet a painted portrait is not just a copy of a photograph. A tremendous amount of artistry and technical skill is involved in creating a gorgeous work of art from what may be hazy or otherwise inferior snapshots. Countless decisions about color, composition, elimination of extraneous details, and many other elements, along with the technical skill to implement them, are all crucial to creating a beautiful portrait.
A painted portrait is a work of art that can be displayed anywhere, including in the most public rooms in one's home where one might not hang a photograph.
Because each subject has their own unique personality, I do not have a one-size-fits-all procedure. Some people feel very natural while an artist paints them, or in front of an artist's camera. Others only come most alive among people they love.
Ideally I want to meet, interact with, observe, and draw the subject from life. Sometimes this is not workable. If you have favorite photographs that you feel most capture the subject's facial expressions or body language, I want to study them. This is true even if the photos' lighting, focus, background, or clothing are imperfect. For me, the most important element is expression, and expression is sometimes so fleeting that it is only caught in a quick snapshot. I will take additional photographs and use other means to add the visual information I need to complete the portrait.
Generally the client and I choose one basic photograph as the basis of the overall composition. Under certain circumstances, I can combine more than one photograph and/or live drawing, especially when this only involves alteration of background. (Light sources and other elements must match precisely in order to make this work successfully.)
Setting, Background, Clothing
I like to see my subjects in their own environments, wearing clothing they feel themselves in. I want to use every element of each painting – including clothing and background – to capture the uniqueness of that very special person. I don't generally pose subjects formally in my own controlled environment. I'm not interested in how a subject looks interacting with me – a stranger to them – or how they look under my lights in my studio, which has little to do with their lives. I do sometimes alter colors of clothing or other small details, in order to produce the most beautiful painting possible.
My Technique
My technique involves intense visual study deep into the layers of light and shadow in each person's face. I paint with tiny brushes in acrylic, which dries quickly, so I can paint many layers of light and shadow. Some areas of my paintings have 20, 30, or more very thin layers of paint of varying shades. The fact that you're seeing multiple layers of color overlapping in different ways is what gives the vivid, "alive" effect even though the surface of the painting appears virtually flat.
Fees begin at $3000 for a single subject. Additional subjects in the same painting are $1500. Fees increase for such elements as elaborate backgrounds, borders, and clothing. The exact price will be discussed and contracted for before work begins.
A deposit of 50% is due in advance, at contract-signing. The balance is due at completion of commission and acceptance by the client.
Framing, taxes when applicable, and shipping expenses are in addition to the prices listed above.
The finished painting takes two to six months from contract signing, depending on how elaborate the commission is as well as my work load at the time.
