Editing Portrait (section)

== Literature ==
{{main|Portrait (literature)}}

In [[literature]] the term ''portrait'' refers to a written description or analysis of a person or thing. A written portrait often gives deep insight, and offers an analysis that goes far beyond the superficial. For example, the American author [[Patricia Cornwell]] wrote a best-selling 2002 book entitled ''[[Portrait of a Killer]]'' about the personality, background, and possible motivations of [[Jack the Ripper]], as well as the media coverage of his murders, and the subsequent police investigation of his crimes.

However, in literature a portrait of a character is a subtle combination of fact and fiction, exploring the individual psychology of the character in the wider context of their environment. When the subject of the narrative is a historical figure, then the writer is free to create a compelling and dramatic portrait of the person that draws on imaginative invention for verisimilitude. An example is [[Hilary Mantel]]'s ''[[Wolf Hall]]'' (2009) which, while acknowledging the work of the historian Mary Robertson for background information, imagines an intimate portrait of [[Thomas Cromwell]] and his intense relationship with [[Henry VIII]] at a critical time in English history. It could be argued that in literature any portrait is a discreet assembly of facts, anecdotes, and author's insights. [[Plutarch]]'s ''[[Parallel Lives]]'', written in the second century AD, offer a prime example of historical literary portraits, as a source of information about the individuals and their times. Painted portraits can also play a role in literature. These may be fictional portraits, such as that of Dorian Gray in [[The Picture of Dorian Gray|the eponymous 1891 novel]] by [[Oscar Wilde]]. But sometimes also real portraits feature in literature. An example is the portrait of [[Richard III of England|Richard III]] that plays a role in [[Josephine Tey]]'s 1951 novel ''[[The Daughter of Time]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Friend |first1=Stacie "Real Portraits in Literature" |editor1-last=Maes |editor1-first=Hans |title=Portraits and Philosophy |date=2020 |publisher=Routledge}}</ref>