Original version 1:23 Instrumental 1987
Extended version 3:12 Instrumental 1992

Liner notes

Out of the Blue…

notes by Roma Ryan
The Celts album booklet, 1992

Quotes about the song

Enya: I was asked to write a piece of music for a pre-Raphaelite sketch and it’s called ‘The Portrait’. And I thought it would be nice, seeing as my first love is for piano, to, um, write it on piano and leave out as much synthesizer as possible. And it’s a very simple piece. It ended up a very simple piece for piano.
TV Interview: To Go Beyond, BBC, 1987
enyabookofdays.com

Trivia

‘Portrait’ was first released in its original length of 1:23 on’ ENYA’. Later a new extended and re-recorded version of 3:12 was released as ‘Out of the Blue’ on the ‘Orinoco Flow’ single and as ‘Portrait (Out Of The Blue)” on ‘The Celts’.

The song gave name to this great website ;)