Book review: a history of great self-portraits

Self-portraits trick us by exploiting a basic human reaction," said John Carey in the Sunday Times. "When we meet other people we immediately try to judge their inner selves from their facial expressions. Cruel or kind? Intelligent or stupid? Approachable or touchy?" Though a self-portrait is only ever an illusion, "the illusion always carries a truth, the truth of how the artist hopes to be seen". This is the idea that Laura Cumming pursues in her book, "a series of brilliantly acute case studies" on the great self-portraitists of Western art, often posed as a series of questions.

Why, for instance, did Van Eyck, her first subject, paint a tiny reflection of himself in the Arnolfini portrait? "Why does Botticelli glance at us with such cold disdain from the edge of the crowd in his Adoration of the Magi? Why does Van Dyck paint himself accompanied by a gigantic sunflower?" Though A Face to the World is "stacked with visual masterpieces", what Cumming says about them "is always better than you could have imagined. It adds up to the most enjoyable art book I have read for years."

"The book swarms with startling characters and remarkable incident," said Simon Callow in the Guardian. Cumming begins her discussion of Durer's 1500 work ("the alpha and omega of self-portraiture") by reporting that its gaze proved too much for one crazed observer, who in 1905 tried to gouge out its eyes with a hatpin. "This is art history made as vivid as a giant canvas executed by a master. Her writing is precise, personable, perspicacious: she avoids jargon, while celebrating the specific skills of the painter." A Face to the World is "delightful", said Serena Davies in the Daily Telegraph. Cumming uses her intelligence "less to impress us with her theories than to persuade us how great her subjects are".

A Face to the World: On Self-Portraits by Laura Cumming, Harper Collins, 280pp, £30The Week Bookshop £27 (including p&p) ·