The role and status of the artist changed fundamentally in the ninetheenth century. Interest grew in the person behind the work and the artist's portrait became a popular genre. Artists were keen to show themselves as individuals as well as painters, while also acting as their own models.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is undoubtedly the best-known artist of all time. He was famous during his own lifetime for his matchless gift for depicting human characters and emotions. He was one of the first artists to become fascinated by the expressiveness of the human face, be it deformed and ugly or beautiful and idealised. This is seen not only in famous paintings like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, but even more so in the dozens of drawings that he made of people’s faces.

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During the 1880s, five ambitious artists, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard, and Charles Angrand, ventured to the suburbs northwest of Paris to paint along the river Seine. Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: Along the Seine is the first publication to investigate these artists’ motivations for leaving the city to paint the suburbs and the profound influence that Asnières, clichy, and the surrounding areas had upon their revolutionary approaches to color and brushstrok...