Portraits of individuals usually have three orientations. The sitting model can be depicted facing forward with eyes toward the viewer. The model can be turned to the viewer’s right showing more of the right side of the face, or the model can be turned toward the left showing more of the face’s left side. Research finds that the left side orientation occurs more frequently regardless of whether the portrait is a painting, drawing, or photograph. The left side orientation is more common in depictions of females. Portraits of males show relatively equal numbers of right and left side poses. In a previous blog post I described a study using Instagram photos of celebrities. It found poses to the left were preferred based on the number of ‘likes’ photos of different orientations received.¹
Why does the left side orientation occur more frequently and why is it preferred over other portrait views? The theory with the strongest research support argues that the left side of the face shows more emotional expressiveness than the right side making it the preferred orientation for depictions by artists and photographers. This left-right difference in emotional expression is also the basis for the left preference shown by the viewer. The anatomical explanation for the left side advantage in emotional expression states that the left side of the face is innervated by the right hemisphere of the brain, the area of the brain dominant for the processing of emotion.
A recent study examined over 2,000 portraits in different mediums from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, England.² The author looked at three orientations (right, left, or frontal) depicted by the model’s head, body, and gaze postures. He found that body and head shared the same orientation in 75% of the portraits. Of the three postures, the one most likely to differ from the head or body was gaze, often depicted as frontal regardless of the direction of the other two postures. Four posture orientations occurred in 69% of the portraits despite the 27 possible combinations of three orientations (left, right, frontal) and three posture types (head, body, gaze). These four postures were body and head turned left with left or frontal gaze, and body and head turned right with right or frontal gaze.
Here are two example pieces from the National Portrait Gallery collection illustrating the variables examined in this study. The portrait of JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series of books, is shown above. It portrays one of the four most common postures of rightward body, head, and gaze. The portrait of Dame Maggie Smith is shown to the right. She is famous for her roles as Dowager Countess Violet Crawley in the Downton Abbey series and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films among many other achievements. Her portrait is an example of another common posture, the leftward body and head orientation with a frontal gaze. Overall, the paintings included in the study showed a slightly higher rate of postures favoring the left side (37%) as opposed to the right side (32%). The remaining 31% showed either mixed or frontal poses.
The higher frequency of left-sided orientations extends to depictions of chimpanzees as well. Like humans, the left side of the chimpanzee face is controlled by the right side of the brain. Another recent study examined 2,000 Instagram photos of chimps and found leftward poses occurred more frequently than rightward poses, 57% versus 43%, respectively.³ Humans take photos so these results indicate humans depict chimps as they depict themselves. The anatomical similarities of the facial muscles and right hemisphere innervation of the face in both humans and chimps may account for the frequency of left oriented chimp faces in photos.
These studies demonstrate side preferences extending beyond the body. Handedness and footedness are bodily side preferences displayed in everyday activities such as writing and kicking a ball. Scientists argue that the specialized processing of the right and left hemispheres of the brain leads to side preferences in the intake of visual information as well. When the transmission of emotion is important, information from the left side of visual space, processed by the right hemisphere, takes precedence leading to a higher frequency of left-sided depictions of faces whether human or non-human.
¹Turn the left cheek, January 11, 2020.
²White, P.A. (2020). Body, head, and gaze orientation in portraits: Effects of artistic medium, date of execution, and gender. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition. 25, 292-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2019.1684935
³Lindell, A.K. (2020). Humans’ left cheek portrait bias extends to chimpanzees: Depictions of chimps on Instagram. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cogntion. 25, 285-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2019.1669631