A Portrait of the Author as an Author

Abstract

The growth of the literary market in the eighteenth century changed concepts of authorship. Portrait conventions were also used to frame authorial personality. By looking at pictorial representations of men and women authors, in paintings and prints, I identify conflicting images of authorship. Idealised representations of the author as gentleman or lady are contrasted with images of the violence of market forces. Polite restraint of the self-conscious individual genius has to face the unruly passions and interests that characterise the new social relations of literary production.