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| Courbet - An Real Allegory summing up seven years of My Life as an Artist. |
Artists have differing personalities and differing motivations. For some of the earliest Egyptian self-portraitists, it was a vehicle into the after-life; for ancient sculptors, a signature that might aid immortality. Perhaps the fact that the subject is readily available at any time of the day or night motivates some artists to attempt a self-portrait; perhaps it is to satisfy the requirements of the typical art-school course on drawing; or perhaps it is undertaken because it must be the ultimate artistic challenge - when the artist decides what style to adopt and which attributes to include on a subject that s/he knows better than anyone. For Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgois and Tracey Emin, portraying the self is form of cathartic self-analysis. A self-portrait can also be a public proclamation of the artist's definition of art itself; or an intense period of self-examination, examining the inner and/or outer self. For example, is the self-portrait closer to a photographic likeness, an interpretation of the most striking characteristics or a depiction of the inner soul of the artist? Some artists use the self-portrait to tell a story, as in Chagall's "I and the Village" (1911), which tells the story of his early life in Russia. There has been a change over time in rationale for self-portraiture too. If we look (above) at Courbet's Interior of My Studio, A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My
Life as an Artist, (1854-1855), we see the artist in the centre of a stage he has created which tells us much about his mental state and attitudes, and his social status.Courbet used the self-portrait to create a fantasy. The cynic in me also sees some self-exposure in self-portraiture as a way of drawing attention and increasing publicity, leading to increased fame and more saleability, as in Tracey Emin's bed.
How do artists explain themselves? (e.g. portraitists use all sorts of visual clues to "explain" the sitter to the viewer.)
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| Artimesia Genitileschi, 1638-9, Self-Portrait |
In 1638-39, Artimesia Gentileschi, painted her "Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting" (above). This was a bold step at the time, as there were few women artists, yet abstract concepts like painting were traditionally represented as female allegorical figures, so the allegory of painting would need a female figure. Given that Artimesia had been raped as a young woman, she often painted women as strong figures, with power, so this painting might be viewed as her taking control.
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| Sofonisba Anguissola, 1556 |
Even earlier, in 1556, this self-portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola (left) showed the artist at work on another portrait. This illustrated not only her own features, but the skills she has developed and the subject matter that she was able to undertake. It can be seen as an advertisement of her work.
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| Picasso 1906 |
A much later self-portrait of a young Pablo Picasso (1906) shows the artist at work experimenting in his studio, palette in hand, with intensity and concentration. He had just moved to Paris and had quickly became assimilated into the avant-garde of artists, writers and poets. His early style shows his comfort in drawing life-like figures.
By 1926, his style has changed considerably and his self-portrait reflects his experiments with cubism, and by the 1960's his style has changed again. (see right and below). These paintings show that Picasso is more concerned with what art is than depicting a true likeness of himself and his characteristics to the world.
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| Picasso 1963 |
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| Picasso 1928 |
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| Hockney, Self-Portrait,1977 - showing his mastery of technique. |
David Hockney, for example, was asked why he didn't do more self-portraits, and expressed some reluctance to look at himself too closely, although he did say he was
sure he would return to them later in life. He did just that - in 1983,
in his mid-forties, he embarked on a period of intense self-examination,
possibly in response to his increasing isolation due to deafness, or to
approaching middle-age and loss of his "attractiveness" or the untimely
deaths of several friends to AIDS-related illnesses.
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| 1983 |
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| 1986 |
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| 1999 |
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| David Hockney 2009 |
These three drawings (above) show a vulnerability not evident in earlier work,
and were very different from the self-portraits completed in his youth.
By 2009, David Hockney was experimenting again with the latest technology, showing his mastery of the quick sketch on an i-phone and i-pad (right).
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| Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait as St Sebastian, 1915 |
In this self-portrait poster design by Egon Schiele (1915), for an exhibition at the Arnot Gallery, the artist's sorrowful state of mind is evident in the way he has portrayed himself as St Sebastian offered up to the arrows of the critics. At the time, Schiele wanted to revive the social role of painting and was devising large allegorical canvases as he developed his career as a painter, but his idea did not succeed.
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| Caravaggio, Sick Bacchus, 1593 |
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| Salvador Dali, Soft Self-portrait, 1941 |
Salvador Dali, on the other hand, chose to portray himself as a melting mask in this surrealist self-portrait with a strip of bacon lying underneath (above). It is reminiscent of his melting watches and clocks, and has the characteristic props keeping his face up. Dali was quoted as saying, “Instead of painting the soul,
the inside, I wanted to paint solely the outside, the envelope, the
glove of myself.”
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| Torso/Self-Portrait |
Louise Bourgeois, on the other hand, has the opposite approach to Dali in this sculptural piece (right). Like much of her work, it involves deep searching and self-analysis. Describing it, she said, “The spiral is important to me. It is a
twist. As a child, after washing the tapestries in the river, I would
turn and twist and ring them with three others or more to ring the water
out. Later I would dream of getting rid of my father’s mistress. I
would do it in my dreams by ringing her neck. The spiral—I love the
spiral—it represents control and freedom.”
Try to find some artists' comments on their own self-portrait.
David Hockney "The reason you start painting yourself is that you are a cheap model — you’ve always got yourself".
Pablo Picasso “Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?”
Frida Kahlo "Because I am so often alone....because I am the subject I know best."
Vincent Van Gogh “I purposely bought a mirror good enough to enable me to
work from my image in default of a model, because if I can manage to
paint the colouring of my own head, which is not to be done without some
difficulty, I shall likewise be able to paint the heads of other good
souls, men and women.”
"In Rembrandt's portraits...it is more than nature, it is a kind of revelation." (Writing to brother Theo about Rembrandt)
Rembrandt "...and I came, it may be, to look for myself and recognize myself. What have I found?
Death painted I see..."(this was said about his final self-portraits.)
Salvador Dali “Instead of painting the soul,
the inside, I wanted to paint solely the outside, the envelope, the
glove of myself.”
Have you ever attempted a self-portrait?
Yes, I have attempted some self-portrait drawings for the OCA Drawing 1 course, where I tried to find a likeness of myself; but for this exercise, I thought I'd try the inner self option, and produced this effort at describing how I feel pulled in several directions at the moment.
I want the viewer to see that I feel my face/head is being pulled in several directions, but I am not miserable about this - in fact there is an excitement that I have tried to convey with the bright eyes and the wide smile/grimace.
References:
Kelly, Sean., The Self-Portrait: A Modern View. London: Sarema Press, 1987
Barr,Alfred H. Jr., "Cubism and Abstract Art", Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1936, pp. 100/101
Hall,J., The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History. London: Thames and Hudson, 2014
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