Excerpts from art critic, historian, lecturer and broadcaster James Hall’s lively and comprehensive cultural history of self-portraiture, including such artists as Dürer, Gentileschi, Van Gogh and Kahlo.

Surprising, questioning, challenging, enriching: the Pocket Perspectives series celebrates writers and thinkers who have helped shape the conversation across the arts. Mixing classic and contemporary texts, reissues and abridgements, these are bite-sized, fully illustrated reads in an attractive, affordable and highly collectable package.