Almost as soon as he was interned he began sketching somber portraits of the Japanese-American families devastated by government policy.

He showed them down the corridor, through a large chamber decked with ancient black velvet drapes and somber portraits of scowling, hawknosed men.

A true romantic, Mother was attracted to the dark, somber portrait of the man with a mask.

Mr. Riklis bought the somber portrait at Sotheby's in 1986 for paid nearly $2 million.

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

He glanced at the huge somber portrait of Manfred Blackwood, my venerable ancestor.

Throughout, Mr. Sokurov creates painstaking and gracefully somber portraits.

Here he passed through a procession of outer offices and finally was admitted to a brightly lit reception hall lined with somber portraits in oils.

Here, on the eve of World War II, Orozco created a somber but compelling portrait of humanity in both its benign and malevolent aspects.

That may be a tall order for a place where somber portraits of kings and weeping Virgins hang in heavy, gilt frames.