Eye Contact

Artworks that depict a subject who is making direct eye contact with the viewer. In addition to her enigmatic smile, the Mona Lisa has perhaps the most recognized gaze in art history with eyes that reciprocate the viewer’s attention and appear to follow their spectator across the room. Replete with a number of social connotations, eye contact can convey confidence, attraction, humor, and even enmity. Portraying this loaded interaction in art can enable a work’s subject to transcend the picture plane and establish a personal connection with the viewer.