Portrait (Harry Potter)

> Hogwarts portraits are able to talk and move around from picture to picture. They behave like their subjects. However, the degree to which they can interact with the people looking at them depends not on the skill of the painter, but on the power of the witch or wizard painted.
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> Description

**Portraits** were paintings made of certain individuals, namely witches and wizards. The subject of a magical portrait was sentient due to enchantments placed on the portrait by the painter. The portrait would be able to use some of the subject's favourite phrases and imitate their general demeanour based on how the subject appeared to the painter; however, they were limited in what they could say or do. A portrait could also move from portrait to portrait, or else visit a portrait of them elsewhere in the world.

## Depiction

A witch or wizard could go to a wizarding painter to have themselves painted. This was usually done so that the portraitist could enchant the portrait to have some characteristics of the subject. The portrait would be able to use some of the subject's favourite phrases and imitate their general demeanour. Private individuals might place their portrait in their home, while prominent figures in the magical community might get a portrait mounted on the wall of prestigious institutions such as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries and the British Ministry of Magic to commemorate them for some public service or accomplishment.

## Portrait person

Sir Cadogan's portrait was forever challenging people to a fight, falling off its horse and behaving in a fairly unbalanced way, which was how the subject appeared to the poor wizard who had to paint him, while the portrait of the Fat Lady continued to indulge her love of good food, drink, and tip-top security long after her living model passed away.

 File:Hogwarts Paintings Fleeing.gif  A portrait knew little if anything of its subject's life, and therefore could not hold a very interesting conversation about its subject, as they were only representations of the living subjects as seen by the artist. The exception to this was of the portraits of Hogwarts Headmasters, which were kept in a cupboard from the time of their painting, which was usually very old, until the subject died. The Headmaster could therefore teach their portrait to act and speak like them so that they could teach their successors. Despite this, the people in the portraits were considered a sort of memoir; a support mechanism that could cousel and inform - to an extent - the decisions of the current headteacher. Prior to taking up the post of Headmistress of Hogwarts on a permanent basis, Minerva McGonagall was advised to not mistake those in the paintings for actual people. The depth of knowledge and insight contained in some of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' portraits was unknown to any but the incumbents of the office and the few students who had realised, over the centuries, that the portraits' apparent sleepiness when visitors arrived in the office was not necessarily genuine.

The person depicted in a portrait could therefore live indefinitely, although a portrait did have reason to fear for their life or well-being.

## Magical photographs

A witch or wizard might also produce a magical photograph that had been put through a special potion. While some of these might simply be animated images occurring in a continuous loop, some reacted to their surroundings. Gilderoy Lockhart had "countless framed photographs" of himself in his office. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione were taken to his office to be interviewed by Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape in the Chamber of Secrets, pictures of Lockhart (with his hair now in rollers) dodged out of sight. A few moments later, the photographs were nodding in agreement as Lockhart spoke.

## Behind the scenes

* Portraits are shown to be far more interactive than in any other media, with objects able to move from the portrait out to the real world and vice versa. Many puzzles in both games revolve around getting a portrait to give you a necessary object, or bringing a real world object into the portrait to assist its occupants.
* J. K. Rowling once claimed in an interview that all of the portraits seen at Hogwarts depict deceased individuals. This is not strictly true, however; Gilderoy Lockhart owned several portraits of himself which he hung in his classroom and office.
* In a scene in *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, a portrait features someone that resembles Lord Voldemort. This may be a coincidence, or the director's idea.

## Appearances

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* *Harry-Potter and-the Sorcerer's S Stone* (film) (First Entire Appearance)
* *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (film)

1. ↑ , Chapter B, page 7
2. ↑ As Phineas Nigellus lived for at least seventy-three years after his portrait was painted, seemingly without ageing or dying.
3. ↑ , Chapter 7 (*Flying To Hogwarts*)
4. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (film)
5. ↑ Edinburgh Book Festival, Sunday 15th August 2004