The Country Bear's Contemplations

'Self Portrait' as painted circa1900 by Czech painterJan Preisler (1872-1918).

'Mephistopholes' as painted in 1898 by Ukrainian/Russian painter Ilya Repin (1844 - 1930).

Thomas Lord Vaux as depicted by Hans Holbein the Younger.

'Portrait of Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov' as sketched by Ukrainian - Russian painter Ilya Repin (1844 - 1930). Pavel Chistyakov (1832–1919) was a prominent Russian painter, and a major influence on Russian art. The original drawing remains housed in the State Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow.

'Portrait of a man in a beret' as painted before 1939 by Polish painter Maria-Mela Muter (1876–1967) the prominent Jewish/Polish painter who for much of her career created and worked in Paris.

'Portrait of the artist Kyriak Kostandi', as drawn in charcoal by Russian artist Valentin Serov (1865 - 1911). Kyriak Kostandi (1852 - 1921) was a prominent Ukrainian painter who painted many outdoors scenes, thus extanding the range of popular painting.

'Maritime Legacy' as painted by modern commercial artist Tracy Porter, find her portraits online here. There are a few more bearded men to be found there too, amongst porttraits of many other people.

Sir Roy Strong (born 1935) as he appeared when he appeared on BBC Radio 4's 'Dessert Island Discs', in 2014. Please listen to the programme here.

'Portrait of Hans Thoma' as taken in 1910 by German photographer Hugo Erfurth (1874 - 1948). Hugo Erfurth started his studies as a painter between 1892 and 1896. He started studying photography in 1894, whilst still at school through an apprenticeship with court photographer Wilhelm Höffer. At the age of 22, he took over his first photographic studio.

Design by pioneer Austrian/American newspaper cartoon artist Frederick Burr Opper

William (Bill) Sokol, the artist depicted here, was born in 1923, in Warsaw, Poland. He was brought to the United States in 1930 and became a naturalized citizen. He became an artist and illustrator of children's books, and published a few self-illustrated titles of his own.

'Portrait of Boris Serebryakov' as drawn in 1915 by Russian/Ukrainian artist Zinaida Serebriakova (1884 - 1967). Boris Serebryakov was a railway engineer, and the husband of the artist. in other depictions of him the artist show him in his works uniform, in a certain pomp and glory.

A photo of the national poet of Turkey, Mehmet Akif Ersoy (1873 - 1936) photographed in Helwan, south of Cairo in Egypt, in 1923. Photographer unknown. He wrote the Turkish natioanl anthem in 1921, and was a pamphleteer in support of the civil war. He lived permanently, and taught Turkish, in Egypt from 1925 to early 1936, when he returned to Turkey and died there. He was always more dedicated to Islam than he was to the revolution that Mustapha Kamel Ataturk (1880 - 1938) made lasting and solid.

You might have guessed that George F. Rowe (1832 - 1889) was a stage manager/actor from his an appearance, above, as photographed by Napoleon Sarony (1821 - 1896), in 1876, that quite defines the word 'theatrical'. With a wig that big I would normally resist that theatrical a beard, forgive me if it is a lapse in my taste, we all have them.

'Portrait of M. Benois' as painted in 1911 by Russian/Ukrainian artist Zinaida Serebriakova (1884 - 1967).