Portrait Tales (Paperback)

Paperback. 'Portrait Tales offers a compelling series of behind-the-scenes stories about both well-known and little-known masterly portraits from world art history and, therefore, about the famous or unduly forgotten or neglected artists who painted them. Jean Fremon enables us to look both behind and, not least, into the 'magic mirrors', as he phrases it in his French title, with which artists paint their own self-portraits. To tell his tales, he uses a colourful palette of phenomena related to how portraits are made and to how people pose for them; he highlights not only the painterly but also the psychological, sociological and political backgrounds informing the artist and the model.' (John Taylor, from the preface) Fables, memories, things he's read, things he's seen, transposed or made up, the stories gathered in this slim volume have the portrait, portraitists and the portraitees as common themes. Fremon takes the reader around the world, hopping through art history, as facts and personal memories are retold with imaginative flair for the telling detail. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…