Friday 26 January 2018

Artist's Self-Portraits - part 6

A series on artist’s self-portraits. Some are famous as portraitists, others not so much, but very many artists have painted their own portraits over centuries. Some of the more contemporary artists became more experimental with their style of painting as time went on, and it’s interesting to see that development in their own portraits as well.

I decided to run the series in alphabetical order rather than chronological order, to give a more interesting mix of styles through the ages.


This is part 6 of an 8-part series on Artist’s Self Portraits:



Mark Gertler, born Marks Gertler, (1891 London – 1939 London) was a British painter of figure subjects, portraits and still-life. His early life and his relationship with Dora Carrington were the inspiration for Gilbert Cannan's novel Mendel.

Mark Gertler 1908-09c Self Portrait with Fishing Cap
oil on canvas 60.9 x 50.8 cm
© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mark Gertler 1920 Self Portrait
oil on canvas 42.5 x 29.2 cm



Mark Rothko, born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz, (1903 Daugavpils, Latvia – 1970 New York) was an American painter of Russian Jewish descent. Although Rothko himself refused to adhere to any art movement, he is generally identified as an abstract expressionist.

Mark Rothko 1936 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 81.9 x 65.4 cm
Private Collection
© Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko-DACS 2018



Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844 Allegheny, Pittsburgh, PA – 1926 Paris, France) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Pennsylvania, but lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists.

Mary Cassatt 1878 Portrait of the Artist ( Self-Portrait )
watercolour and gouache on wove paper laid down on buff coloured wood-pulp paper 60 x 41.1 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Mary Cassatt 1880c Self-Portrait
gouache and watercolour over graphite on paper 32.7 x 2.6 cm
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC



Maurice Denis (1870 Granville, France – 1943 Paris, France) was a French painter, decorative artist and writer, who was an important figure in the transitional period between impressionism and modern art.

Maurice Denis 1889 Portrait of the Artist Aged Eighteen ( Self-Portrait )
oil on canvas 33 x 25 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Maurice Denis 1916 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 68 x 80 cm
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

Maurice Denis 1919 Self-Portrait
oil on board
Musée Fabre, Montpelier, France



Max Ernst (1891 Brühl, Germany – 1976 Paris, France) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism.

Max Ernst 1909 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 60 x 90 cm
Private Collection



Max Liebermann (1847 Berlin, Germany – 1935 Berlin, Germany) was a German-Jewish painter and printmaker, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany.

Max Liebermann 1911 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm
Private Collection

Max Liebermann 1916 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 112 x 92 cm
Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany

Max Liebermann 1922 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 90 x 75.3 cm

Max Liebermann 1922 Self-Portrait

Max Liebermann 1934 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 92.1 x 73.3 cm
Tate, London



Nicholas Hilliard (1547 London – 1619 London) was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England.

Nicholas Hilliard 1577 Self-Portrait Miniature
watercolour on vellum laid down on card
Victoria & Albert Museum, London



Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (1891 Gera, Germany – 1969 Singen, Germany) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutality of war.

Otto Dix 1912 Self-Portrait with Carnation
oil on paper 73 x 50 cm
Detroit Institute of the Arts, MI

Otto Dix 1912 Self-Portrait

Otto Dix 1913 Self-Portrait

Otto Dix 1922 Self-Portrait
pencil and watercolour on paper 49.2 x 39.3 cm
Museum of Modern Art, New York
© 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Otto Dix 1926 Self-Portrait by the Easel with Model
charcoal and chalk on paper 100 x 69.5 cm

Otto Dix 1926 Self-Portrait with Easel

Otto Dix 1931 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 100 x 80 cm
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Cologne

Otto Dix 1942 Self-Portrait with Palette
mixed media on wood 100 x 80 cm
Staatsgaleire Stuttgart, Germany



Pablo Picasso (1881 Málaga, Spain – 1973 Mougins, France) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement.

Pablo Picasso 1896 Self-Portrait ( aged 15 )
oil on canvas 32.7 x 23.6 cm
Museu Picaso, Barcelona, Spain

Pablo Picasso 1901 Self-Portrait ( aged 20 )
oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm
Musée Picasso, Paris

Pablo Picasso 1906 Self-Portrait ( aged 25 )
oil on canvas 39 x 30 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

Pablo Picasso 1907 Self-Portrait ( aged 25 )
oil on canvas 50 x 46 cm

Pablo Picasso 1972 Self-Portrait Facing Death ( aged 90 )
pencil and crayon on paper 65.7 x 50.5 cm
Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo



Parmigianino ( Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola ) (1503 Parma, Italy – 1540 Casalmaggiore, Italy) was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma.

Parmigianino 1523-24c Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
oil on wood panel 24.4 cm diameter
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria



Patrick Heron (1920 Leeds, UK – 1999 Zennor, UK) was a British abstract and figurative artist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall.

Patrick Heron 1951 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London



Paul Cézanne (1839 Aix-en-Provence, France – 1906 Aix-en-Provence, France) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.

Paul Cézanne 1873-75c Self-Portrait in a Casquette
oil on canvas 55 x 38 cm
Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

Paul Cézanne 1875c Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 64 x 53 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Paul Cézanne 1875c Self-Portrait with Rose Background
oil on canvas 66 x 55 cm
Private Collection

Paul Cézanne 1880 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 61 x 47 cm
Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, DC

Paul Cézanne 1880c Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 34.7 x 27 cm
The National Gallery, London

Paul Cézanne 1883-87 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 44 x 36 cm
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Paul Cézanne 1890c Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm
E.G. Bührle Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland

Paul Cézanne 1895c Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm
Private Collection



Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (1848 Paris, France – 1903 Atuona, French Polynesia) was a French post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognised for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinctly different from Impressionism.

Paul Gauguin 1885 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 65.2 x 54.3 cm
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Paul Gauguin 1888 Self-Portrait at Lezaven
oil on canvas 40.5 x 32.5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Paul Gauguin 1888 Self-Portrait, Les Miserables
oil on canvas 45 x 55 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Paul Gauguin 1889 Self-Portrait with Halo
oil on wood panel 79 x 51 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Paul Gauguin 1890 Self-Portrait with the Yellow Christ
oil on canvas 30 x 46 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Paul Gauguin 1890-99 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Paul Gauguin 1893c Self-Portrait in a Hat
oil on canvas 48 x 36 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Paul Gauguin 1893c Self-Portrait ( Portrait of the Artist with the Idol )
oil on canvas
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Paul Gauguin 1894c Self-Portrait with Palette
oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm
Private Collection

Paul Gauguin 1896 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 40.5 x 32 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Paul Gauguin 1903 Self-Portrait with Spectacles
oil on canvas laid down on wood
Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland