Henry James Framed—A Partial Portrait (Part 1)

Abstract

Abstract:It may come as a surprise that, considering his notorious concern for personal privacy, Henry James sat to other artists more than twenty times in his lifetime. Altogether, twenty-nine formal representations of his visage—in portraits, drawings, and sculpture—have been identified, but (with few exceptions) these works have received only scant attention from critics and biographers. Henry James Framed (forthcoming in 2022 from University of Nebraska Press) will provide a catalogue raisonné of these objects, discussing the artists who made them, the patrons who sought them, and, where possible, the later provenance of them. This "partial portrait" of the larger endeavor (with another segment to follow) offers new information about James's relationships with some of the artists who sought him out as a subject.