Perhaps the key to this fascinating book is the quote by Dickens on his ideal of Shakespeare's likeness: " . . . a genius and absolute blank". No portrait was necessary, his work is a self-portrait. Yet we're fascinated from Rembrandt to Lucien Freud, by artists' studying themselves in self-portraiture. Do we discover anything? About them, about ourselves? Or do we see just an image to make of what we will? Irresistible
(James Baker - bwl 58 Autumn 2010 ) |
