Pakistan, April 25 -- Curiously, too, although large-scale portraiture has remained a viable and indeed creative art form, photography killed miniature painting stone dead in just a few years. That is perhaps indicative of why large-scale portraits have such an enduring appeal. Scale gives them the human presence. They are also always in some way a record of an actual social situation; the hours, perhaps days that artist and sitter have spent together.

The self-portrait - of which there are several striking examples here - offers a variation on the same theme. You share a time of introspection with the artist, or alternatively you are offered an insight into their projected self-image. William Gillies and Robert Colquhoun paint themselve...