Leopold Seyffert studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Anschutz, William Merritt Chase and Cecilia Beaux. In early to mid-twentieth-century America he was very much in demand as a portrait painter, painting upwards of 500 portraits before his death in 1956.

Above we see Seyffert using Sight-Size to paint an under life-size portrait. Notice that the canvas is closer to him than Dr. Holland is. When Seyffert backed up he would see his subject and the painting at the same visual size.

The video, below, is a presentation of stills and audio describing Seyffert’s portrait painting process.

Robert Seyffert, Leopold’s grandson, is an artist as well. He maintains a site about his family’s three generations of artists, here.

*The image at the very top of the post shows Seyffert painting a life-size portrait using Sight-Size. However, notice three things in the photograph. First, Seyffert, while up at the canvas, is looking directly at the model. Second, the model is looking at Seyffert. And third, based upon the shape of the shadow-side of her face compared to that on the painting, it is clear that she is out of pose. To be in pose, she needed to turn her head to her right. Then, to view her in pose, Seyffert would need to back up quite a bit. That is classic Sight-Size.

When Sight-Sizing, never, never, never look at the model out of pose and try to paint.