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The Essay

Writer Polly Coles looks at five different aspects of portraiture and makes the case that portraiture is the most intimate artistic conversation of all.

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Heads, bodies and legs

All available episodes (5 total)

  • Death in Trieste

    A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

  • Watch: My Deaf World

    Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

  • Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

  • Download The Essay

    Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

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