A foreign affair that impinged on the United States is represented by David Siqueiros's dark and brooding equestrian portrait of Emilio Zapata.

He also painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits, and the unpublished "marionette" works, which were only found after his death.

"People like it," Mr. Huang said of the stark, brooding portrait, taken from a film made 18 years ago.

Ara Aslanian, a 6-year-old, painted a brooding and expressive portrait of his mother.

Barry Moser offers a brooding portrait of Macbeth, while Mary GrandPré shows fancifully masked dancers in "Much Ado About Nothing."

Both Gone Baby Gone and The Town created far darker, brooding and more intriguing portraits of inner-city Boston than Martin Scorsese's overly glamorised The Departed.

Elena stood by the fireplace, beneath the brooding, malevolent portrait of the late Uncle Paul.

She pointed to the somber, brooding portrait of Uncle Paul hanging behind her father's desk.

The other Ingres is "Head of Jupiter in Profile," a brooding portrait expected to fetch $300,000 to $500,000.

And even for someone who could spot Stanley Elkin or Hortense Calisher walking down the street, these are sharply dramatic, brooding portraits of literary lights.