9: Beyond Words: Sights and Sounds in Qualitative Leadership Research

Griffey and Jackson (2010) based their study of portraits as leaders on the premise that it may be useful to think of a portrait functioning as a virtual leader in terms of its effect on followers. They studied seven portraits of formal leaders that were exhibited as part of a larger exhibition entitled “The Power of Portraiture.” The purpose of this art-based study was to demonstrate that “official portraits, by virtue of their contexts in institutions and their role in commemorating a particular office, are powerful exemplars which by repetition capture the historical visual conventions of representing leadership.” Throughout history, portraits of leaders, whether in stone, bronze, paint, or currency have been used to immortalize leaders which resulted in a conceptualization of portraiture, governed by tradition as a claim of a leader’s membership in a historical community of elites. Celebrated painters and sculptors such as Rembrandt and Michelangelo commanded high prices from their patrons which guaranteed them a place in history.