Tag Archives: Paintings

Famous Faces in Art May be Revealed « Passing Through . . . .

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Famous Faces in Art May be Revealed « Passing Through . . . ..

Californian university project will use facial recognition software to identify subjects of paintings

vermeer pearl earring

Detail from Jan Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring. Can forensic science help us find out who she was? Photograph: Corbis

A Californian university has won funding to use advanced facial recognition technology to try to solve the mysteries of some of the world’s most famous works of art.

Professor Conrad Rudolph said the idea for the experiment came from watching news and detective shows such as CSI which had a constant theme of using advanced computers to recognise unknown faces from murder victims to wanted criminals.

Rudolph, professor of medieval art history at the University of Californiaat Riverside, realised he might be able to apply that cutting-edge forensic science to some of the oldest mysteries in art: identifying the real people in paintings such as Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring,Hals’s The Laughing Cavalier or thousands of other portraits and busts where the identity of the subject has been lost. Work on the project should begin within a month or so.

Police and forensic scientists can use facial recognition software that identifies individuals by measuring certain key features. For example, it might measure the distance between someone’s eyes or the gap between their mouth and their nose. In real life such measurements should be almost as unique as a fingerprint. Rudolph is hoping that the same might be true of portraiture, whether it is a sculpted bust or a painting.

To start with, his team will use facial recognition software on death masks of known individuals and then compare them to busts and portraits. If the software can find a match where Rudolph and his team know one exists, then it shows the technique works and can be used on unknown subjects to see if it can match them up with known identities.

The identity of the subjects of some of the most famous pictures in the world are unknown, including Girl with a Pearl Earring, the 17th-century portrait that inspired a film starring Scarlett Johansson. The Imagined Lives exhibition now running at London’s National Portrait Galleryfeatures portraits of 14 unknown subjects. Many of those paintings were once thought to be of historical figures such as Elizabeth I, but the identities are now disputed. The truth behind several paintings of Shakespeare – such as the Chandos portrait and the Cobbe portrait – has also been much disputed. It is possible facial recognition software could help solve these mysteries.

To be identified, the subject of a portrait would need to be matched to the identity of another named person in a separate picture. But Rudolph has some tricks up his sleeve. He believes that another forensic technique – whereby an “ageing” programme is run on a subject – could also help solve art mysteries. In fighting crime the software is usually used to produce “adult” pictures of children who have been missing for many years. But it could see if the Girl with a Pearl Earring had been painted again as a much older woman, whose identity might be known.

Away from the high-profile cases there are a legion of other unknown subjects that might be more easily identified. In many works from before the 19th century wealthy patrons often inserted themselves, their families or friends and business associates into crowd scenes.

Facial recognition technology could be used to identify some of these people from already known works and thus provide insight into personal, political and business relationships of the day. In other cases families in wealthy homes commissioned busts of relatives that were often sold when estates went bankrupt or families declined.

The new technique could identify many of these people by linking the busts to known portraits. “These are historical documents and they can teach us things. Works of art can show us political connections or business links. It opens up a whole new window into the past,” Rudolph said.

In order to transfer the process to analysing faces in works of art, some technical issues will need to be overcome. Portraits are in two dimensions and are also an artistic interpretation rather than a definitive likeness. In some cases, the painter might have simply not been very accurate, or attempted to flatter a subject, which would make recognition more difficult.

“It is different using this on art rather than an actual human,” said Rudolph, “But we are trying to test the limits of the technology now and then who knows what advances may happen in the future? This is a fast-moving field.”

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Art auction and fundraiser nets $40,000 for Children’s Resource Center

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Art auction and fundraiser nets $40,000 for Children’s Resource Center.

Art auction and fundraiser nets ,000 for Children's Resource Center

CODY, Wyo. — Racing the clock, Clark Wilcox checked his watch and applied another dab of color to the stormy skies over Grand Teton.

The quick-draw painting would later fetch $475 at Friday night’s auction for the Children’s Resource Center, placing it among the evening’s top-selling artworks rendered and purchased in the name of generosity.

As the well-attended fundraiser rolled into the evening Friday and patrons dined on hors d’oeuvres and red wine, Mitch Brauchie, executive director of the Children’s Resource Center, watched with gratitude.

The event generated $40,000 for the center, helping cover the matching funds the organization must raise to provide its services to families across the Bighorn Basin.

“For every $1 we raise here tonight, we’ll be able to match it with $9 from the state,” Brauchie said. “Our state legislators have been very supportive, but these matching funds are vital.”

The Children’s Resource Center works with children under age 5. Its counselors and therapists offer a bundle of services that include speech, physical and occupational therapy, special education, case management and counseling.

The center traces its roots to 1972, when a group of parents of disabled children organized the Northwest Child Development Center — now known as the Children’s Resource Center.

The Wyoming Legislature began funding the organization in 1978 through the Department of Health. More than 40 developmental preschools now operate across the state, including Region One of the Children’s Resource Center, which serves Park, Washakie, Big Horn and Hot Springs counties.

As the organization has grown over the past 30 years, it continues to receive strong support from the state. Brauchie noted the state legislators in attendance on Friday, adding that for every $1 spent on early childhood intervention, Wyoming saves roughly $7 in future special-education costs.

“Ninety percent of a child’s brain is developed by age 3,” Brauchie said. “We work hard to take advantage of that critical period.

“One-third of our kids will actually start school with age-appropriate skills and not need special education.”

For the other 66 percent, progress may come slower, but the agency’s counselors and therapists work hard to get their clients up to speed at an early age.

Amber Able and Carissa Lee, two recent University of Wyoming graduates who work as speech therapists at the Powell center, find reward in their work and seeing a child overcome the challenges of delayed language.

“When we provide services for our clients, we provide them in their home, a community based setting, or in their preschool or day cares,” Able said. “We try to do all we can to see them in their natural environment.”

Able described language delay as when a child older than 1 isn’t talking, or when a child younger than 1 doesn’t participate in reciprocal communication, such as smiling back at a parent.

Many times, she said, the child may progress on his or her own. Other times, however, treatment may be necessary, and that’s where the Children’s Resource Center comes into play.

“We work a lot with the parents,” Able said. “That’s a huge part of what we do. We go into the homes a lot and work with the families on how they can better interact with their children and be their best teacher.”

Like Able and the center’s other therapists, Lee sees around 30 children a week. The center provides services to more than 1,400 families across the Bighorn Basin, from Thermopolis to Worland to Lovell.

While her caseload is heavy and her services are in demand, Lee finds pleasure in helping children learn to communicate.

“It’s really great to see them when they finally understand what we’re trying to do,” said Lee. “It’s great when they start making those communications, whether it signing or saying more words and putting them together.”

Items up for auction Friday included a Mission Plains rug, which sold for $550, and an antler accent table, which brought $975. Jim Hagstrom’s quick-draw painting sold for $1,100, while Julie Oriet’s pastel sold for $700.

James Bama’s artist-proof print dubbed “Buffalo in Storm” was the night’s top seller, fetching $2,900 at auction.