portraits offer motifs that perhaps more than any other fascinate both their contemporaries and posterity. Irrespective of the period in which we live or the social class to which we belong, they bring us face to face with individuals from the past and present. This book reflects portraits from five centuries with a profusion of illustratioins and analyses that allow us to approach both the artists and their models together with the hostorical contexts in which they functioned. In it we make the acquaintanceship of some of the great names in the history of art - Rembrandt, Goya, Zorn, Roslin, Judith Leyster, Helene Scherfbjeck - together with contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman, Lena Cronqvist och John-E. Franzén. This book was published to accompany the exhibition Face to Face. Portraits from Five Centuries, 4 october 2001 - 27 januari 2002 at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm