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scholars’ monuments enter into an already estab- lished community of objects of artistic, historic, scientific or cultural value – the university collec- tion, the core of which may often be preserved for didactic purposes. Scholars have proposed a variety of taxonomies for university collections. Cornelia Weber suggests that the commissioned portrait forms part of ‘collections which bear wit- ness to the history of universities.’7 James Hamil- ton suggests two categories of object into which the commissioned portrait might fall: commem- orative – portraits of distinguished individuals of the university’s past; and decorative – works ac- quired to hang in public or private spaces of the university.8 While the task of the commissioned portrait is certainly commemorative, and forms part of the institution’s history and heritage, and will often, but not always, be hung, this paper suggests additional tasks for which the commis- sioned portrait may also be responsible. The case studies are detailed and analysed below. Direct quotations from the interviews conducted with lead commissioners are repro- duced with the interviewees’ kind permission. As the commissioner and the sitter are very often not the same person in university commissions, I interviewed Chris McIntyre, Dean of Cultural Affairs and the Director of UHArts at the Uni- versity of Hertfordshire, and at Darwin, I inter- viewed the serving College Bursar, Peter Brin- dle, who administered the portrait commission in consultation with the College Fellowship. the hertfordshire portrait: brendan kelly sir tim wilson dl, emeritus professor, university of hertfordshire (2012) Sir Tim Wilson DL was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire between 2003 and 2010 and was Pro-Vice Chancellor when the University made its transition from Hatfield Polytechnic to fully-fledged University in 1992. Sir Tim was appointed Knight Bachelor for ser- vices to Higher Education and to business in the 2011 New Year’s Honours List. His portrait measures 120cm x 70cm and is a half-length standing portrait with a neutral background, which appears to depict a rear wall joining with a ceiling, resulting in a strong sense for the viewer of a low positionality in relation to the subject. The subject is depicted wearing a business suit. The tonal palette of the paint- ing is restricted and focused on greys, blacks and whites. The artist was inspired by the Japanese compositional technique known as Notan, meaning literally, ‘light and shade’, which seeks to harmonize light and dark tones. The painting was painted from a photograph, one of several hundred shot by Kelly in the television studios on the University of Hertfordshire’s campus, in which a state-of-the-art lighting system has been installed.9 sara ayres226 emerging literature which catalogues them and analyses their functions internally and externally to the university. See L. Drysdale, A World of Learning: University Collections in Scotland, Edinburgh 1990; V. Tandy, Boom and Bust: Why we Can’t Afford to be Complacent about Local Authority Museums and University Collections, in: Museums Journal, 107:11, 2007, pp. 16–17; K. Arnold-Forster, `A Developing Sense of Crisis’: A New Look at University Collections in the United Kingdom, in: Museum International, 52:207, 2000, pp. 10-14; J. Hamilton, The Role of the University Curator in the 1990s in: Museum Management & Curatorship, 14:3, 1995, pp. 73–79; Betrayal Of Trust, in: Burlington Magazine, 135, 1993, p. 3. 7 C. Weber: University Collections, in: Europäische Geschichte Online (EGO), Mainz 2012-12-19. URL: http:// www.ieg-ego.eu/weberc-2012-en URN: urn:nbn:de:0159-2012121701 [2014-09-17]. 8 J. Hamilton, The Role of the University Curator in the 1990s, (cit. n. 6). 9 Email from Brendan Kelly to Annabel Elton, 22 September 2014. Open Access © 2018 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR