That Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) became the most fashionable painter of his time was not simply due to his artistic gifts or good fortune. The art of pleasing, Richard Wendorf contends, was as much a part of Reynold's success - in his life and in his work - as the art of painting. Conceived as an experiment in cultural criticism, written along the fault lines of art history and literary studies, this text explores the ways in which portrait-painting is embedded in the social fabric of a given culture as well as in the social and professional transaction between the artist and his or her subject. In addition to providing another view of Reynolds, Wendorf's book develops a different way of interpreting portraiture.