"Examining painting, photographs, and other representations of black people over the past two centuries, Cutting a Figure argues that these images should be viewed as a category of portraiture distinct from depictions of people with other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The difference, Richard J. Powell contends, stems directly from the black subject's power to subvert dominant racist conventions by evincing such traits as self-composure, self-adornment, and self-imagining." "Powell supports his argument by skillfully parsing these displays of individuality, social performance, and increased visibility, which in the nineteenth century were sometimes described as "cutting a figure." Combining previously unpublished images with scrupulous archival research, Cutting a Figure illuminates the ideological nature of the genre and the centrality of race and cultural identity in understanding modern and contemporary portraiture."--BOOK JACKET.