Finding information about person in a portrait

August 11, 2013 4:29 PM

We have inherited a portrait of Prof. Jacques Stock painted in the late 1930's. Based on family tradition he might have been a professor of art. Is there some site or some way we can search the web based on the face in the portrait? We've tried many different ways to search by name and keep coming up with nothing. The artist was a family member who died several years ago. The portrait was discovered after he died. We do know the family member studied portraiture under Thomas Eakins, but that is about all we have to go on. Many thanks for any help you can give.
posted by fgdmorr to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

You might be able to isolate the face and reverse image search it. However, do you know the area in which he might have taught, or the institution? Alternative spellings for his name? That might help track down a publication or university record.
posted by jetlagaddict at 4:43 PM on August 11, 2013

If you go to Google Images, and look in the search box, you'll see a little camera icon at its right side. If you click on that, it will allow you to search by image (either by entering a URL of the image or by uploading the image from your computer).
posted by Flunkie at 4:56 PM on August 11, 2013

Perhaps post a photograph of the portrait?
posted by suedehead at 5:02 PM on August 11, 2013

You could try Tineye.com.

By the way, "Jacques Stock" seems like an odd name. The combination of the French "Jacques" and the Anglo-Germanic "Stock" is unusual; I didn't find any authors named "Jacques Stock" in OCLC's WorldCat database, which surprised me. Is there any chance that one of the names (most likely the family name) is something else?
posted by brianogilvie at 7:12 PM on August 11, 2013