Fionn Wilson

I’ve always thought people’s faces look more interesting in profile. You’re able to see bone structure more clearly and the shape of the nose. I think the nose is the defining point of someone’s face — especially of interest to me is that angle between the top of the nose and where the inner eye starts. If you get that right in a portrait, everything else will follow. One of the things I like painting almost as much as I like painting hands, are noses.

I was looking at this detail from one of my favourite El Greco paintings, St Francis receiving the stigmata (1585–1590). Everything I love in a painting is encapsulated in this image. The ethereal light, the emotion, the expressive brushwork, the limited palette — and the profile! It’s hard to imagine that the face in this painting would have had such emotive power if it was painted full on. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but that’s the way I see it.

I’ve painted quite a few self portraits in profile. To me, these often signify and express a kind of introspection, a looking within or looking away — whereas with El Greco’s side profile paintings the subject is very often looking out and upwards towards God.

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