"As we approach the end of the twentieth-century, it becomes increasingly clear that portraiture has continued to hold a central place in artistic practice, in spite of the fact that, for much of the century, it has been regarded as marginal by the majority of writers and critics of the avant-garde. How this has happened has not been much studied ... Read moreand we very much lack good quality analysis of the changing status of portraiture and of the ways in which it has been regarded by artists. I therefore very much welcome Elizabeth Cayzer's well documented study of a number of key portraits of the century in which she weaves together the lives of representative artists and sitters into an effective narrative of twentieth-century portraiture as an art form."
Charles Saumarez Smith, Director of the National Portrait Gallery. Show Less