This book explores Barthes's 'model of painting' in the context of Balzac's fictional representations of the relation between artists, their models and their works of art. Diana Knight criticises the sexual politics of prostitution and marriage in nineteenth-century France.
Introduction From Sculpture to Paiting 1. S/Z, Sarrasine and Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu From Painting to Marriage 2. La Bourse 3. La Vendetta 4. La Maison du chat-qui-pelote From Model to Artist 5. La Rabouilleuse 6. The Joseph Bridau Cycle 7. Afterword