What can a photograph or a painting represent? What is the connection between the subject of the painting (the referent) and the actual subject? Who experiences that relationship: the subject or the spectator? This story by Edgar Allan Poe gets to the essence of the connection that a representation has with its referent (the subject represented). During your reading, think about the relationships between the artist, the model, and the work or art. Consider how the artist relates to his wife, and to the painting, and how the wife relates to her husband and his painting. You should consider where and how love is represented in this scenario.
The Oval Portrait
(1850)
by Edgar Allan Poe
(1809-1849)
Sample Solution