This 2003 book examines the origins, development, and explosion of biographical literature on artists in Britain between 1870 and 1910.

Introduction: the artists as text; 1. Biographical functions, mediations and exchanges; 2. The Victorian typology of artists: from prelapsarian to professional; 3. Artists' autobiographies: Cellini, Res Gestae, jouissance, and the collective life; 4. Family biographies: domestic authority, social order, and the artist's body; 5. Biography as history: anecdotage, serialization, and national identity; Conclusion: gifting art: from Bohemians to benefactors.