[Brenda Ellis]

I'm not sure where the line is between figurative and portrait, either, Janet.

I think this is a portrait simply because the painting is so clearly "about" this woman. Her personality, what she might be thinking, her mood.

I am remembering a painting of Charles Dickens by R.W. Buss, titled "Dickens' Dream". It is certainly a portrait but the figure of Dickens is relatively small and asleep. The rest of the painting (unfinished) is an entire wall of character depictions from Dickens' stories.

I don't know what they teach folks in art school about the difference between the two. Manet's painting of the woman behind the bar, in which reflected in the mirror is a whole room full of people. Portrait or figurative? Maybe it is for the artist to say whether his/her work is a portrait or not.