SOURCE: Baker, Susan Read. “La Rochefoucauld and the Art of the Self-Portrait.” Romanic Review 65, no. 1 (January 1974): 13-30.

In this essay, Baker discusses an autobiographical sketch written by La Rochefoucauld, which she says is not only a self-portrait but a commentary on society, human nature, and morality.

Je vis un jour à Barleduc, qu'on presentoit au Roy François second, pour la recommandation de la memoire de René, Roy de Sicile, un pourtraict qu'il avoit luy-mesmes fait de soy. Pourquoy n'est-il loisible de mesme à un chacun de se peindre de la plume, comme il se peignoit d'un creon?

Montaigne, Essais, II, 17

In the second book of his Essais, Montaigne sketched a rich and suggestive self-portrait which was to serve as a model in the later development of the genre. The portrait was produced in an essai significantly entitled “De la présomption,” and offered a detailed analysis of its author's...