The Mirror and the Palette by Jennifer Higgie

 

 

The Mirror and the Palette - Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: 500 Years of Women’s Self-Portraits. Jennifer Higgie, Published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2021

Jennifer Higgie is from Australia and works as an editor of Frieze magazine. 

 

In this book Higgie introduces women who have made self portraits and puts them in historical context, grouping them by themes such as ‘Allegory’ or ‘Hallucination’. 

She tells us about their other works, which are described but frustratingly not illustrated so the reader has to do their own internet searches.

 

There are illustrations of self portraits by each of the artists chosen for lengthier mentions. I enjoyed the writing which flows easily and as I knew of most of the artists mentioned I was reminded of their stories with some new information being offered.