Sitting - Our Place in the World

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Writer Polly Coles reads the next of her essays about portraiture and our obsession with ourselves: Sitting - Our Place in the World. In this series, she looks at five different aspects of portraiture and makes the case that portraiture is the most intimate artistic conversation of all. Face to face with another human being, no other art form investigates and reveals more richly what it is to be human. Portraits can promote exploitation and self-aggrandisement, but at their best, they are instruments of honesty, love and profound attention. Polly suggests the world around a sitter can be as revealing as the portrait itself. In this sense, portraiture is also about place and objects. Produced by Melanie Harris of Sparklab Productions Photo by Ella Gradwell You can find images of some of the paintings by artists referenced here: Lotto: bit.ly/Lotto-FeltHat Lotto: bit.ly/Lotto-GentlemanGloves Klimt: bit.ly/Klimt-TheKiss Eduard Vuillard: bit.ly/ÉdouardVuillard Pierre Bonnard: bit.ly/PierreBonnard-TheBath Marie-Guillemine Benoist: bit.ly/Marie-Guillemine The BBC is not responsible for the contents of the sites listed.