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Self-Portrait Essay: Examples and How to Write a Portrait

A portrait essay presents a personality to the readers. It usually focuses on the aspects of life that are the most exciting or unique.

It comprises two types of papers: a self-portrait essay and a portrait of another person. This article explains how to write these assignments with utmost efficiency. You will find the best tips, ideas, and samples to describe yourself or someone else as precisely as possible.

👧 Self-Portrait Essay

A self-portrait essay is a piece of writing that describes the author’s looks and personal qualities . It uses evocative images and characteristic details to show why this person stands out from the crowd. As a rule, it is a descriptive or reflective essay. Still, it can be argumentative if you want to contradict someone else’s opinion about you.

How to Write a Self-Portrait

Below you’ll find several ideas for a self-portrait essay. These are just general guidelines. If you need a creative and well-formulated topic, you are welcome to use our topic-generating tool .

• Start the introduction with an introduction. We are not talking about “Hi, my name is Cathy,” although this variant is also possible in some contexts. Tell about your family and where you live. Do not just list facts as if you are answering a questionnaire. Make up a background story.
• Imagine yourself a book character . How would you describe yourself if you wrote a book about your life ? This approach can make your self-portrait essay more poetic and literary. Replace the epithets that can describe many people (straight nose, thin lips, high forehead) with metaphors (a nose as straight as an arrow, paper-thin lips, expansive forehead). It will make your essay more memorable.
• Speak about objects & stories. Appearance is only a tiny part of your personality . Your life consists of items you like, people you love, and stories you create. That’s what you readers will enjoy reading!
• Conclude with your hopes for the future. Do not reiterate what you said before, even if you cannot imagine anything new. Write how you would like to develop your skills or become a better professional in the future. Make your essay open-ended, as any human life is.

Self-Portrait Essay Example

Who am I? What kind of person am I? What do I like? What do I want to become? In this essay, I will describe my appearance and how it reflects my inner world. Looking in the mirror, I see a slender but slightly skinny girl. I have an oval face, a small straight nose, and sparkling eyes. It is the eyes that make my friends and acquaintances look at my face. They are profound, although they add playfulness to my face. In cloudy weather, they acquire a dark steel shade. When it is sunny, they brighten up. In general, I have kind gray eyes. As my friends say, it seems that they “laugh.” That’s what I am all about. I am kind, cheerful, moderately strict, and responsive. I have a high forehead, hidden behind curtain bangs, and beautiful thick eyebrows of the correct shape hidden under the bangs. But this is not a gift from nature. I had to work on the form of the eyebrows on my own. My lips are not thin, but not full either. Behind them, there are snow-white teeth. The hair is straight, although I always wanted to have curls. It is wheat-colored and reaches the shoulders. I am a purposeful person, so I always set tasks that I immediately try to accomplish. But I never stop in my development. I raise the bar even higher and confidently put the next goal. It is essential for me to be the best in everything, so I have to work harder. Most likely, this is my drawback, but this quality fuels me to keep on growing. I would like to become firm, successful, and self-confident.

👨‍🎨️ Descriptive Portrait Essay

A descriptive essay about a person is a genre that analyzes the individual features and human qualities of a given person. People have so many different sides that there is a broad array of possibilities in this genre. Write of someone you know well enough (to have sufficient material).

Essay About a Person: Ideas

Below you’ll find six great ideas for an essay about a person.

• Describe appearance . First impressions are the most lasting . Your readers will get your message better if you give them a “picture.” It will play the role of a whiteboard where you’ll attack all the other traits.
• Link appearance to personality traits . But looks are not everything. They are the top of the iceberg. Show your reader why you paid attention to those characteristics and which conclusions you made.
• Mention their manners . It is optional but quite exciting to track. We are not stable, and our manners reflect those emotional shifts. Describe how the person behaves in stressful situations .
• Spot the emotions they raise in you . This part will make a perfect conclusion. Share your feelings with the readers to build empathy.
• Balance between being concise and informative . Avoid overwhelming your reader with irrelevant details. If the described person is someone you know well, it may be challenging to point out what is worth mentioning and what is not.
• Learn how to describe from professionals . If you wish to learn how to write, you should read a lot. In particular, you should read works of the same genre. Write down the metaphors and epithets your favorite author uses in their character descriptions.

How to Write a Portrait

We have prepared for you a mini guide on how to write a portrait of a person. Just follow these 8 simple steps:

• Collect information about a person . It is crucial to write about a person you know well, like a close friend, a classmate, or a family member. Consider conducting an interview with this person or talking with other people who know this individual to gain more insights and observations.
• Create a thesis and an outline . Choose interesting details, anecdotes, unique features, or qualities of your chosen person that are worth describing in your essay. Organize all the information logically in an outline to make writing easier. Also, create a thesis statement, which must include the person you write about and your purpose for describing them.
• Start with a physical description . At this stage, you need to be as specific as possible. Try to describe not only the appearance of the person but add details about their smell, voice, etc.
• Describe the behavior . Focus on what makes this person unique — their laugh, a manner of talking, a way of moving, etc.
• Demonstrate your character’s reputation . To do so, show how your described person makes others feel, treats others, and contributes to the world.
• Show your character’s environment and belongings . A person’s environment and belongings can reveal much about their personality, interests, and values. So, include details about what things are important to your described individual and whether their environment looks tidy, cluttered, dirty, etc.
• Write about their manner of speech . Describe the person’s choice of words and intonation to reflect their education level, confidence or fear, and unique worldview.
• Conclude by summarizing unique qualities . In your last paragraph, summarize what makes your described person unique. Add a concluding sentence conveying the final impression they have made on you.

Descriptive Portrait Essay Example

My best friend is a person who deserves a separate book. She had a complicated but interesting life. She is the third child in a large family and wants to become a nurse. I will dedicate this essay to her features and personal qualities to show that you can be a good person despite anything. Mary’s appearance is unremarkable and even plain. She is tall and plump, and her gestures are indecisive. The girl seems to be shy, but she becomes very confident when her family or values are harmed. One could see a strict line between her eyebrows. It marks her inner strength and decisiveness. The look of her grey eyes is attentive and benevolent. It helps her win the interlocutor in an argument. By the way, communication skills are the strongest part of her character. She is open and cheerful but sometimes too impulsive. The way she speaks and behaves comforts me, like a cold winter evening in front of a fireplace. She is kind and caring, and always does her best to make any interaction pleasurable. Still, when someone acts with hypocrisy, she prefers to break up with such a person. It is hard for Mary to give people a second chance. This feature has its drawbacks, but it also makes her friends’ circle tight and reliable. Mary wants to become a nursery teacher because she loves children. At the moment, she is studying for that, and I am sure she will succeed. This girl has taught me that people can combine mutually exclusive features in themselves and remain to be nice friends and intelligent specialists.

We hope we’ve inspired you to write your portrait essay. If you have already written your text and want it to be read aloud, you are welcome to use our text-to-speech tool .

❓ Portrait Essay FAQ

How to write a portrait essay.

1. Make a list of the most remarkable facial features and character traits of the person in question. 2. Relate the above to their character. 3. Group your findings into categories. 4. Dedicate one main body paragraph to each category.

How to Start a Portrait Essay?

Any essay should start with background information. In the case of a portrait essay, you could mention how you got to know the person or what your first impression was. Or, you can give general information about their family and work. Finish your introduction with a thesis statement, informing the reader of the purpose of your writing.

How to Write a Self-portrait Essay?

1. Sit in front of the mirror and think about which of your features differ you from other people. 2. Write the main body, dedicating each paragraph to a different aspect of your appearance. 3. Write the introduction about what kind of person you are and how you came to the place where you are now. 4. Write the conclusion about your future intentions.

How Do You Write a Character Portrait Essay?

1. Carefully read all the author’s descriptions of the character. 2. Link them to the plot as most characters reveal themselves gradually. 3. Think what impressed you the most about the character. 4. Write your opinion using the image the author created and your own imagination.

🔗 References

• Descriptive Essays | Purdue Online Writing Lab
• Descriptive Essay Examples – YourDictionary
• How to Give a Description of a Character – wikiHow
• How to Write About Yourself | Indeed.com
• 7 Helpful Tips on How to Write a Memorable Personal Essay
• Personal Essay Topics and Prompts – ThoughtCo

Seeing Our Own Reflection in the Birth of the Self-Portrait

By Jason Farago Sept. 25, 2020

• Share full article

Who are you, and what are you doing here? You, there in the mirror, there in the lens of your phone: What do you see?

In the eyes of us poor moderns, it seems self-evident that a picture can capture who you are. That your posed image, your face and your clothing, express something essential about your personality. It’s the myth on which every selfie stands.

But the premise that an image can be an authentic representation — that you are a unique individual at all — is not self-evident. It is a historical development. It had to be invented.

More than five centuries ago, Albrecht Dürer painted images so detailed and exact that they seemed some kind of divine creation.

One subject fascinated him above all: himself.

In the year 1500, Dürer was already the leading artist of the German Renaissance, and famous across Europe as an entrepreneur of new media. He had made his name, and a small fortune, through the production and sale of woodcuts and engravings.

That year, he painted this commanding image, which hangs today in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. It’s one of the earliest standalone self-portraits in Western painting — and for my two pfennigs, the greatest self-portrait ever painted: a picture that radiates authority five centuries on.

But it isn’t exactly a welcoming picture. It’s supremely arrogant. So perfect it’s almost airless, so detailed it feels fetishistic. Its symmetry and frontal orientation give Dürer the appearance, and unapproachability, of a holy icon.

He completed this self-portrait at 28, though his face has a curiously ageless aspect. His skin is bright, gently illuminated from a soft light source from the composition’s left.

His cheeks are smooth. Not full like a prosperous burgher’s, not sunken like a malnourished student’s — but solid, unblemished. Like an image of an ideal man.

His small mouth is framed by a goatee, a trimmed beard and a bell curve of a mustache. Each whisker has been meticulously flecked, thanks to the relatively new medium of oil paint. They give this self-portrait a human presence, but also an alienating exactitude.

Remember, it’s 1500. Flat mirrors are still a few decades away, and Dürer would have been looking at his reflection in a convex glass. This lifelikeness has to be calculated. The path from decoration to art goes through math.

Look how the lines of his hair weave in and out. How brighter strands and darker ones braid together in each lock.

They’re so adept that Dürer’s rivals suspected he had a special brush.

The rich, fur-lined coat is an outfit suitable for a nobleman or a scholar — not someone who works with his hands. He’s showing off his painterly skill here, picking out every bristle. But he’s also affirming that he sees himself as more than a mere technician.

See how, with his long fingers, he strokes the fur collar? How the soft brown bristles peek over his middle finger? It’s a beautiful, even perverse detail, one that plunges this pseudo-icon back into the realm of the senses.

It’s his left hand — though in the mirror it looks like his right. It’s raised over his heart, and he has even highlighted the veins that pump blood from one organ to the other.

My hand and my heart. Divine benediction and sensual caress. Who I am, and what God has made me.

And his big gray-brown eyes, slightly asymmetrical, stare straight forward.

You can even see the mullion and transom of a window reflected in the iris of his left eye.

This is not the squint of an artist at work, but a firm, interpellating gaze on the beholder. His eyes bear down with such conviction that one troubled museumgoer, a century ago, mutilated them with a hatpin. (Repaired soon after!)

What those eyes express is a new kind of lucidity. They’re the eyes of an artist who not only knows how to depict himself, but who considers himself worthy of being depicted.

He did it first at age 13. Working in his father’s goldsmith shop, Dürer made this three-quarter-length self-portrait: keen, well fed, stringy hair bundled under his hood. He scratched it out in silverpoint: an extremely difficult medium, since it allows no corrections.

At 22, having abandoned the goldsmith trade for an artist’s apprenticeship, he painted himself in the same three-quarter profile. The flesh has turned buttery, the clothes a bit richer. He holds a flower reputed as an aphrodisiac: Dürer sent this to his bride-to-be.

At 26, the artist pictured himself in luxurious getup: expensive gloves, coordinated tunic and doublet, a braid over his broad upper pecs.

And out the window, an Italianate landscape: Dürer was just back from Venice, and had ambitions that Nuremberg couldn’t contain.

Self-portraiture, at this point, was still fresh terrain. Most artists still didn’t even sign their names. During the medieval era and the first decades of the Renaissance, the artist’s person was hardly a worthy subject of depiction.

In Italy up to now, the most an artist might do would be to slip himself into the background of a crowd scene. You’d paint the Madonna, you’d sketch out the adoring magi, and then —

like Botticelli, you’d position yourself off to one side.

But by the end of the 15th century, the self-portrait has become an act of self-fashioning: how I present myself to you . Dürer’s self-portraits were not the very first, but he made himself his subject with uncommon frequency.

Even his nudes were something much more carefully worked than an anatomy lesson.

Here begins a Renaissance conception of the self that has become so commonplace we don’t even notice it: the self as a subjective individual, the author of one’s own life story. And a modern conception, too, of what it means to be an artist.

Dürer, in his self-portraits, was calling into being an image of the artist as someone with more than just technical facility. The artist needed a more humanistic inspiration, partly from books, partly from God.

I am no mere skilled craftsman, like my father , the picture says. I have imagination, I have learning, I have a gift. All of which elevate me out of the workshop and into high society — or even higher.

Of Dürer’s self-portraits, this has the most unsettling orientation, with the artist’s body flush with the picture plane. And note the background: almost pitch black, not even a shadow.

But this sort of frontal orientation, before Dürer painted himself long-haired and bright-eyed in 1500, was highly rare for a portrait.

It was usually reserved for a more august subject.

It was Christ who usually appeared in this front-facing pose. Artists used it to echo the miraculous impression of his face on the veil of Saint Veronica. Others, like Gerard David around 1500, depict him frontally as the Salvator Mundi, or world’s savior.

Dürer himself began, though never finished, a painting of Christ as Salvator Mundi in 1505. Same full-frontal orientation, same raised right hand.

The motif was popular in Italy too. (Though who knows how much Leonardo painted of this one). Against a simple background, an image of authority and grace.

What did it mean for Dürer to depict himself as the Son of God? The pious have always striven to live in imitation of Christ, though rarely this literally.

The art historian Joseph Leo Koerner offers one convincing answer: Dürer’s merger of “artist’s portrait and cult image of God,” represented an innovation of personal authorship, one that emerged precisely at the turn of the 16th century.

Dürer didn’t literally think of himself as the Second Coming. He was as pious as any other German in the years before the Reformation. Where Christ raises his hand in blessing, Dürer points his inward, and invokes his God-given gift: the gift of art.

Look at the self-portrait’s two remaining details.

First, the inscription — not in German, but high-flown Latin — lettered painstakingly, in gold, at eye level. “Thus I, Albrecht Dürer of Nuremberg, painted myself with indelible colors at the age of 28 years.”

Then, also at eye level, the date and the monogram. 1500: a new century, a turning point.

A.D.: Anno Domini , in the year of the Lord.

But also, more important: Albrecht Dürer.

Dürer plastered this monogram on everything he made. It was a newfangled thing.

He used it to signal his sole authorship of his art, after centuries when European artists worked collectively and anonymously. He used it not only on his paintings, but in a still young new medium: printmaking.

In the early 16th century Dürer made dozens of woodcuts and engravings, like this one of the melancholy Saint Jerome.

The prints made him Europe’s most famous artist outside Italy.

And each one bore the AD monogram as a mark of quality. The prints became a flourishing business, staffed by block cutters, apprentices and traveling salespeople. Dürer oversaw the production.

The AD functions, literally, as a trademark. His prints were being knocked off almost as soon as they left the shop, and Dürer went to court to stop forgers from using his monogram.

But on what grounds could he sue? How could a work of art be a “Dürer,” if Dürer’s hand never touched it?

Answer: through a new kind of authorship, born with the rise of printmaking, in which the work of art is the product of invention and skill at once.

This understanding declared an entirely new kind of individuality. One so enduring that we barely notice how bold it would have seemed in 1500.

Now it seems barely worth clarifying that artists depict themselves to tell a story about themselves — to express “what’s inside.” Like Frida Kahlo, facing front and wearing a necklace of thorns, her face the image of pride and suffering.

Or Andy Warhol, whose frontal self-portrait in his “fright wig” became his most enduring image of facing mortality.

Or, more recently, Sarah Lucas: her body straight forward, a skull between her legs. The self-portrait as a fraught pastiche of sex and death.

Their self-scrutinizing portraits now circulate online, more widely than any print could. And Dürer’s does, too, downloadable in ultra-hi-res reproductions whose precision exceeds his engravings a thousand times over.

But Dürer never sold the 1500 self-portrait. A few of Nuremberg’s educated humanists saw it, but this vision of the artist as a near Messiah stayed largely out of the public eye until just before his death, in 1528.

Nor did Dürer translate it into a print for sale. He never made a single self-portrait print, in fact.

It was painted for posterity, not public communication. His new vision of artistic individuality didn’t require public approval. For he was already establishing that every “Dürer,” even a print, carries something essential of its maker.

Dürer’s monogram and Dürer’s eyes. New learning and new media. The artist’s perception of himself and the artist’s brand offered to the world.

This self-portrait was its own legitimation, with no need for likes. It was the work of an individual already facing the future head on.

Produced by Alicia DeSantis, Gabriel Gianordoli, Laura O’Neill, Josephine Sedgwick.

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Self Portrait Essay Introduction

• Updated on  
• Nov 9, 2023

A self-portrait essay is an opportunity to dive deep into one’s own self-psyche and explore the various facets of their personality, experiences, and emotions. It is a form of autobiographical writing that allows individuals to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences through their own unique lens. In this type of essay, the writer becomes both the subject and the author, painting a vivid picture of themselves for the reader.

A self-portrait essay is not only a means of self-expression but also a powerful tool for self-discovery, reflection, and growth. In this essay, one will explore the various aspects of their personality, experiences, and emotions, and present an introduction of themselves to the reader to gain a deeper understanding of who they are as an individual. 

Individuals can refer to this blog, to know and understand how to write a self-portrait essay introduction. 

This Blog Includes:

How to write a self-portrait essay introduction , points to include in your self-portrait essay, self portrait sample.

Writing an introduction for a self-portrait essay can be an interesting and reflective exercise. Here are some steps you can follow to write a successful self-portrait essay:

• Brainstorm: Start by brainstorming about yourself. Think about your personality, experiences, strengths, weaknesses, and how they have shaped you as a person. Jot down notes and ideas that come to your mind.
• Introduction: Start your essay with a catchy introduction that sets the tone for your essay. You can use a quote, an anecdote, or a question to engage the reader.
• Personal background: Provide some background information about yourself, including where you grew up, your family, and any significant events that have influenced your life.
• Personal qualities: Describe your personality traits, including your strengths and weaknesses. Discuss how these traits have impacted your life and relationships.
• Accomplishments: Write about your accomplishments, both big and small. Talk about what you have achieved and what you are proud of.
• Challenges: Discuss the challenges you have faced in your life and how you have overcome them. This can be a powerful way to show your resilience and strength.
• Goals: Talk about your goals, both short-term and long-term. Explain what motivates you and what you hope to achieve in the future.

Conclude your essay by summarizing your main points and leaving the reader with a final thought or reflection.

Also Read: How to Handle Tough Interview Questions with Ease

When writing a self-portrait essay, there are several things you can mention to provide a comprehensive and insightful depiction of yourself. Here are some ideas:

• Personal Identity: You can start by mentioning your name, age, place of birth, family background, and any other significant details about your upbringing that have contributed to your identity. Discuss your relationships with family, friends, and significant others, and how they have impacted your life.
• Personality Traits: Describe your personality, including your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes, your values, and your beliefs.
• Education and Career: Mention your academic qualifications, any degrees or certifications earned, and your current or past profession.
• Hobbies and Interests: Mention any hobbies, sports, or activities you enjoy, and how they have influenced your life.
• Accomplishments: Highlight your achievements, both personal and professional, that you are most proud of.
• Examples of Overcoming Obstacles: Discuss any challenges or obstacles you have faced in life, and how you overcame them with the help of examples. Do not forget to add what you learned from them. 
• Goals and Aspirations: Mention your short-term and long-term goals, and what you hope to achieve in life.

In the end, you can also share any unique experiences in your life. Share your experiences related to travel, volunteer work, or other notable events.

Also Read: How To Ace Your Self Introduction in Interview!

Here is a sample that you can refer to while writing a self-portrait essay introduction yourself: 

The self-portrait essay can be started by mentioning your name, native place, family background, and education, along with many other details.

A self-portrait essay is an opportunity to express yourself as an individual and introduce the reader to your various facets including your interests, native place, education or belongingness.

For more interesting blogs, check the links given below in the table.

For the latest blogs on Interview Preparation, Careers, and more, follow the Leverage Edu website and YouTube channel .

Aditi Gupta

A bachelors in Journalism and Mass Communication graduate, I am an enthusiastic writer. I love to write about impactful content which can help others. I love to binge watch and listen to music during my free time.

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Home » Writers-House Blog » Self-Portrait Essays: Writing Tips

Self-Portrait Essays: Writing Tips

Self-portrait essays are aimed to describe the author. When writing a self-portrait essay, you should think of your audience and find the best approaches to describe yourself to its members. Use evocative images and specific details to make your description more vivid and engaging. Writing consultants from Writers-house.com service wrote this quick guide to help you write an outstanding self-portrait essay.

Think of Your Experiences

First, take your time and reflect on yourself. Think about your personality, your aspirations, and goals. What people you like to see around yourself? What you’d like to achieve in the future? We recommend that you choose a relatively challenging area to make your essay more engaging. For example, if you suffer from anxiety, you can describe how you overcome it to build relationships with other people. You may write about how you keep standing your ground despite the pressure from others. You may also write about your ethical, philosophical, or religious views. The main thing is to clearly define the focus of your essay.

Describe Yourself

You should begin your essay with an introduction. You need to introduce yourself and to provide a general description that will allow your readers to quickly learn the most important things about you. However, avoid simply listing the details about yourself because you don’t want the introduction to be boring. For example, if you want to say that you’re 16 years old, you can tell your readers how you and your parents moved to a new place 13 years ago, when you were three years old.

A good approach is to take a picture of yourself or take a look at your old pictures and describe what this picture can tell about you. For example, if you look happy on this picture, tell your readers about that day and why you were happy. A picture from the past is also a great opportunity to discuss how you’ve changed over time.

Tell Your Story

The main part of your essay must provide your readers with insights into the chosen area of yourself. When writing about some aspects of your life, make sure to illustrate them with specific events. Devote one body paragraph to one aspect, and provide some opinions. For example, you may mention a political argument with your family or explain what do you think about the overall quality of life in the town where you were born. You should show your personality and illustrate it with such details as events, locations, etc.

We recommend that you don’t use an opportunity to make your self-description more vivid by describing objects that surround your everyday life. For example, describe your room or tell your readers something about your hobbies and passions.

The Conclusion

The last paragraph of your essay should wrap it up and tie together all the pieces of information about yourself, creating a complete image. The conclusion is a great place to tell your readers what you think about your life now, and what you’re going to do in the future. We recommend that you don’t restate any information that you’ve already mentioned in the body of your essay. Don’t write a summary. Instead, provide a new perspective. Writing about your goals and plans is a great solution.

We also recommend that you conclude the essay by considering things you’ve been addressing in the introduction in a different light. If your introduction and conclusion are connected to each other, your essay will create a sense of completion. Make sure that different sections of your essay are logically connected to each other and your story is consistent.

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How the Self-Portrait Evolved Into the Selfie

By Google Arts & Culture

Arthur Elgort Self Portrait (2012-01-01) by Arthur Elgort Condé Nast Archive

A look at the artists who’ve defined self-portraiture It’s said that every day 93 million selfies are taken all over the world, with many of them being shared across multiple platforms for handfuls of likes, comments and adoration. While it might seem like we’re more self-obsessed than ever, you could argue the simple act of snapping a pic of yourself is merely a form of self-expression, with a much bigger potential audience.

Astronaut Ricky Arnold takes an selfie or space-selfie to swap thermal control gear. NASA

The art of self-expression, and more specifically self-portraiture – the godfather of the selfie – goes back centuries. Since the earliest times, we as humans have loved to let people know what we looked like through art. Yet it wasn’t until the Early Renaissance, in the mid-15th century, that the trend really started to grow. This shift in artists experimenting with self-portraiture was brought on by mirrors becoming better and cheaper to get hold of and the advent of panel painting – the technique of painting on a flat panel of wood rather than on walls, which were often uneven or using vellum (animal skin that went through a long preparation process).

Mary Cassatt Self-Portrait (circa 1880) by Mary Stevenson Cassatt Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery

It became an opportunity for artists to depict themselves as the main subject, as heroes in their own stories. Even today it’s still seen as an opportunity to capture a version of yourself nobody else sees. The difference though, is that a digital selfie is a much more instant way of creating a self-portrait, its reach is far bigger than it ever was, and there's more of a danger that it can be manipulated not just by the creator, but by other people. It's this uncertainty that has perhaps led people to talk about the deluge of selfies and the motivations behind them more in recent years.

AFLW 2019 Preliminary Finals (2019-03-23) by Mike Owen Australian Football League

Whatever the method, whether it’s oil on canvas or a snapshot made up of pixels, these parallels suggest a need to look at the artists that have used self-portraiture in their work over the years, to pinpoint key moments, developments and motivations. Here we’ve searched through museum archives and gallery collections to highlight the best examples of self-portraits and selfies from around the world.

Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul (1661) by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn Rijksmuseum

Rembrandt Working in the 1600s, Rembrandt’s self-portraits form an important part of his oeuvre. Creating nearly 100 self-portraits in the form of paintings, etchings and drawings, the artist often depicted himself as confident and accomplished, with his velvet beret a signature attribute.

Rembrandt Laughing (about 1628) by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn The J. Paul Getty Museum

Rembrandt's self-portraits were created by the artist looking at himself in a mirror, and the paintings and drawings therefore reverse his actual features. This is one reason why the hands are usually omitted or "just cursorily described" in his paintings as they would be on the "wrong" side if painted from the mirror. Zoom into the images below to see the fine brushstrokes the artist has used to capture an accurate likeness to himself.

Self-portrait with Monkey (1945) by Frida Kahlo Museo Robert Brady

Frida Kahlo Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is known for her colorful and highly detailed self-portraits. Taking them beyond an aesthetic portrayal of herself, Kahlo’s works dealt with the artist’s physical and psychological suffering during her lifetime, as well as touching upon her turbulent marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera , and sometimes offered a philosophical standpoint on politics, feminism, and other issues.

Self Portrait (5) (1932) by Amrita Sher-Gil National Gallery of Modern Art

Amrita Sher-Gil Said to be a pioneer in Indian art and one of the greatest avant-garde artists of the 20th century, Amrita Sher-Gil embarked on a series of self-portraits during the 1930s while in Paris. Within them, the artist explored her Indian background with her European training and conveyed a plethora of moods.

Self-Portrait as a Tahitian by Amrita Sher-gil Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

This series of paintings was a way for Sher-Gil to experiment with ways of representing the non-western body. She was inspired by Paul Gauguin's work, particularly his depictions of the South Sea Islands and his "stylistically simplified, yet symbolically charged" Tahitian nudes.

Self-portrait (March 1887 - June 1887) by Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh Museum

Vincent Van Gogh In the self-portraits of Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh , he depicts a mirror image of himself. With little money to pay for models to paint and a lack of commissions coming in, Van Gogh decided to paint himself and created around 30 self-portraits in total.

Self-portrait with grey felt hat (September 1887 - October 1887) by Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh Museum

Van Gogh believed that portrait painting would help him develop his skills as an artist. He was once quoted as saying: "If I can manage to paint the coloring 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”. Zoom into van Gogh's images below to see the layers of color and individual brushstrokes the artist built up on the canvas in order to convey a certain atmosphere and mood.

Self Portrait (1940) by Lois Mailou Jones Smithsonian American Art Museum

Lois Mailou Jones In this particular self-portrait by American artist Lois Mailou Jones from 1940, an exploration of identity is apparent. While Jones didn’t travel to Africa until 1970, age 65, here the forms and vibrant color she associated with the ceremonies of Africa are infused in the form of allusions to traditional African sculpture within the work. Jones' work echoes her pride in her African roots and American ancestry and she felt that her greatest contribution to the art world was "proof of the talent of black artists". She wished to be known as an American painter with no labels.

Self-Portrait (1940) by Victor Brecheret MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand

Victor Brecheret Victor Brecheret was an Italian-Brazilian sculptor whose work was a combination of European modernist sculpture with references to his native country through the physical characteristic of his human forms. In this three-dimensional self-portrait created in 1940, Brecheret draws upon motifs from Brazilian folk art and combines them with clean lines and the smoothness and weight of bronze.

In the mirror: self portrait with Joy Hester (1939) by Albert Tucker National Portrait Gallery

Albert Tucker Known better for his paintings, 20th century Australian artist Albert Tucker was also an enthusiastic photographer. In this self-portrait, he appears with his wife Joy Hester, a kindred spirit in her passion for creating art. Though it captures two people instead of the typical one, the candid shot feels intimate as the viewer is left questioning the relationship between the subjects.

Madonna (Self-Portrait) (1975) by Cindy Sherman SCAD Museum of Art

Cindy Sherman American photographer and director Cindy Sherman’s conceptual works stretch the idea of the self-portrait and highlight the ways in which photography can be manipulated to portray what the artist wants us to see.

Untitled (1980) by Cindy Sherman The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

A playful balance between parody and caricature, Sherman’s works are character studies that make the viewer question everything. She explores identity and the nature of representation using movies, TV, magazines, and art history as her inspiration.

Self Portrait With Fried Eggs 1996 (1999) by Sarah Lucas British Council

Sarah Lucas Sarah Lucas , part of the Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s, created a series of 12 self-portraits from 1990 to 1998. Photographic self-portraits have become an important part of Lucas’ work in the way they’ve given the artist room to explore various aspects of herself and challenge stereotypical ideas of identity. Lucas is concerned with the casual misogyny of everyday life and her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humor to explore this. As well as photography, she uses collage and found objects to execute her ideas.

Excellences Excellences and Perfections Perfections (Episode 03) 14th September 2014 (2014/2014) by Amalia Ulman The Moving Museum

Amalia Ulman Coming to the art world’s attention in 2014 for her Instagram-based art project, Amalia Ulman’s work is a sociological critique and a blurring of fact and fiction. Excellences and Perfections is a compilation of around 200 low-fi selfies that Ulman placed periodically on her Instagram account and presented a semi-fictionalized makeover to her followers.

The artist took the project to extremes when she underwent plastic surgery getting fillers and a staged boob job. Her account amassed 65,000 confused followers while it was live. Combining self-portraiture with a kind of performance art for the digital age, Ulman demonstrated how far the self-portrait can be taken and the dialogue that can be created.

To discover even more selfies and self-portraits, check out our time and color tool . Here you can look at selfies painted way back in the 15th century and compare them to ones created today, or unearth the color palettes adopted by different artists and see the similarities between them.

Explore More 10 Self-Portraits By Women Artists

Nine Women Artists: From Sensual to Amorphous

Kiran nadar museum of art, michael willson's lens on the afl, australian football league, art in fashion: masp's rhodia collection, masp - museu de arte de são paulo assis chateaubriand, eye to i: self-portraits from 1900 - today, smithsonian's national portrait gallery, australia: sport and identity, national portrait gallery, folk archive, british council, the james webb space telescope explained, african american art: harlem renaissance, civil rights era, and beyond, smithsonian american art museum, rediscovering haripura panels: nandalal bose, national gallery of modern art, the address of vermeer's little street discovered, rijksmuseum, the usable past: reflections on american history 2000–2017, the museum of fine arts, houston, condé nast's dream pad, condé nast archive, joseph: a celebrated haitian model in 19th-century paris, the j. paul getty museum, self-portrait with monkey, 1945, museo robert brady, which books did vincent van gogh read, van gogh museum.

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Here’s Looking at Me: Lessons in Memoir from Self-Portraiture

Conveying ourselves as characters on the page is tricky business, like expecting a butterfly to pin its own wings. As James Hall explains in The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History , when Montaigne put pen to paper, he referenced those who had put brush to canvas, citing King René of Anjou: “I saw…King Francis II being presented with a self-portrait by King René as a souvenir of him. Why is it not equally permissible to portray yourself with your pen as he did with his brush?”

But a slimly pen-stroked “I” isn’t a portrait: We need to convey detail, texture, shadow. And in this, visual artists have much to teach us.

Look Me in the Eye When American street photographer Vivian Maier’s work was discovered after her death, her self-portraits proved especially compelling. “…[A] self-portrait is a unique confession by an artist. It tells us both how they view themselves, as well as how they perceive the world around them,” wrote John Maloof in the foreword to Vivian Maier Self-Portraits . Maier’s portraits ranged from the head-on mirror shot to the outlined shadow to a combination of the two . In some shots, her shadow seemed almost a mistake or coincidence , as did her reflection , though the sly smile in one hints that perhaps the reflections and shadows are precisely the point of these images.

What does Maier show us? The details of her face, her haircut, her clothing and her photographic gear all come into focus in her most direct shots. But to me, more intriguing are those that “show” her more obliquely: the contents of the handbag next to her shadow , the blurred larger image with the distant in-focus one reflected near her heart , the angles from which she chooses to observe others and those she allows into the frame with her . How she looks is interesting; what she looks at is compelling.

Head-on: Photograph yourself in a mirror. Write a description of yourself as if you were describing someone unknown to you.

What catches your eye? Throughout a day or a weekend, snap images of where your gaze settles: the irritating scuff on the white-painted stair riser heading up to your bedroom; the dog’s wagging tale as its dream delights it; the way the water pools on the barbecue lid in the rain. Print out the images. What insights might a stranger discovering your collection draw from these photos?

I Didn’t Mean to Show You That—Did I?

Eggs in an Egg Crate was the first work Canadian painter Mary Pratt completed after miscarrying twins. Pratt later wrote that the image was inspired as she made a birthday cake, placing the spent shells back in the carton as she used them. But it wasn’t until the painting was finished and she shared it with a friend that she fully realized what she’d captured: “[S]he pointed out to me that the eggs were empty.”

Sometimes an artist is more direct in revealing her subconscious. Frida Kahlo’s painting What I Saw in the Water (also sometimes referred to as What the Water Gave Me ) is, for Kahlo, uncharacteristically surreal: an image of memories from her life floating in the water, her feet poking above them at the tub’s top end.

What draws you? What do you collect? Treasure? Find difficult to let go of? Whether it’s your collection of Pez dispensers or the penny you keep in your pocket for good luck, choose an object that you are drawn to, and describe it deeply, closely. As you observe it, what do you see, feel, smell, taste, hear? Put the writing aside for a week. When you return to the description, what does what you’ve captured on the page reveal about you?

What haunts you? What memories repeat themselves for you? What dreams—or nightmares—return again and again? What song lyrics linger? What smells transport you? Find a place in your daily environment that allows you to stare into the distance or some not-quite-reflective surface—a deck chair overlooking the water, the subway window, or, like Kahlo, the bathtub. Describe the setting first. Then, call up your ghosts and describe them as they inhabit the air around you or the surface before you.

Is That You, Leonardo?

It’s said to be a Renaissance maxim: “Every painter paints himself.” There are those who would have us believe Mona Lisa’s smile hides Leonardo’s self-portrait , and many artists have inserted themselves into a painted scene, as J ulia Fiore writes on Artsy : from Raphael peeking from behind an arch in his Vatican fresco, to Caravaggio as the decapitated Goliath, to Dutch artist Clara Peters cleverly hidden in the reflection of a goblet’s pewter lid. Caravaggio was a repeat offender: In The Taking of Christ , he appears at the frame’s edge, holding up a lantern, in what The Self-Portrait author James Hall categorizes as a “bystander self-portrait”—distinct from the “group self-portrait” where the artist appears as themself with “family, associates or even the Virgin Mary.” 

Who’s in your group? If you were to paint a group self-portrait of you at 17, who else would be in the frame? Describe them—both the real people and the influential figures who loomed large (your Virgin Marys). Now step back and describe yourself as each of them sees you. Try it at 27. 57. 77.

Wish I’d been there: What moment in history would you most like to have witnessed? Research the scene—and then place yourself in it, but at its fringes. Are you Caravaggio holding the lantern? The short-order cook at the Greensboro Sit-In? The kid behind the kid who caught a World Series home run baseball? Be as true to you as you can be: What do you see of yourself in this imagined scene that you might miss revealing in a more factual moment?

One Final Art Lesson

In Likeness: Fathers, Sons, A Portrait , author David Macfarlane spends months contemplating a portrait of himself painted by John Hartman. “I’m not sure how much the painting looks like me,” writes Macfarlane. “I can tell you that it feels like one of those candid shots that surprise you, not always pleasantly. It’s not at all how you picture yourself. But you sense somehow that a certain truth has been captured. …It looks like it has the same memories I do.”

I’ve used the exercises here to reveal my self to myself, then gone back to an essay I’m working on to weave in an insight here or a glimpse of my character there—and in doing so, tried to ensure there isn’t a blank spot on the canvas where I should be.

And that, perhaps, is what as memoirists, as essayists, we might strive for: not a perfect portrait of a flawless subject, but an image that captures a moment of truth, of who we were and what we’ve lived through. ___

Kim Pittaway is the executive director of the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is the co-author, with Toufah Jallow, of Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement , due out from Steerforth Press in October 2021. She is at work on a memoir with the working title Grudge: My Ten-Year Fight with Forgiveness . Her e-newsletter on writing craft, I Have Thoughts , is available at kim.substack.com .

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7 (page 90) p. 90 Self-portraiture, photography, and performance

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The relationship between visual and literary self-portraits is mutual. Portraiture and self-portraiture in art have frequently been linked to biography and autobiography. This is true in particular of serial representations, as in the sequence of over eighty portraits of himself that Rembrandt painted or drew at different stages of his life, from youth to old age, which have often been described as Rembrandt’s autobiography. ‘Self-portraiture, photography, and performance’ considers the autobiographies of Benvenuto Cellini and John Ruskin, then the new and heightened relationship between text and visual image that emerged after the advent of photography in the early 19th century. The role of autobiography as performance is also discussed.

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http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=344716 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Dutch, about 1628 Oil on copper 8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. 2013.60

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The Art of Self-Portrait: Rembrandt by Rembrandt Research Paper

Introduction.

Since times immemorial, art has been a way of reflecting and interpreting the reality surrounding people in their daily life. In order to comprehend the reality in all its variety, artists have striven to depict as many objects and phenomena as they could only find.

One of the most intriguing subjects for reflecting upon via art is human being, and this fact is confirmed by the vast amount of works of art depicting people. In painting, portrait as a way of contemplation on the human nature has enjoyed enormous popularity for centuries on end.

Artists of various époques, styles, and nationalities have depicted people of all possible ages, social backgrounds, and occupations. Among portraits, the genre of self-portrait appears most attractive due to the specific quality of the artist’s self-reflection present in the paintings.

The present paper focuses on the works of one of the most famous portraitists in Baroque period, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), whose oeuvre cannot be imagined without a multitude of his self-portraits.

Against the background of the general popularity of portraits in the seventeenth century, the gallery of Rembrandt’s self-portraits stands out as an exciting encyclopedia of the evolution in the artist’s personality. This artistic transformation can be observed through tracing the changes in the elements of the techniques, the style, and the tone in Rembrandt’s paintings.

The art of portrait in Baroque

After the rejection of any individualism and the resulting oblivion of the portrait genre in the art of the Dark Ages, the era between the late Middle Ages and the seventeenth century celebrated the renascence of portraiture. The commonly known anthropocentrism that dominated the Renaissance art resulted in a dramatic increase in the artists’ interest to human personality, which in its turn found reflection in the genre of portrait.

Creatively responding to the growing popularity of portrait, artists elaborated on the genre; as a result, a whole range of sub-genres emerged, featuring “full-length portrait”, “three-quarter-length portrait”, and various kinds of “head-and-shoulder portrait”. [1] Within those sub-genres, different poses and positions of the sitters were practised, with the most widespread being the “profile view”, the “three-quarters view”, the “half-length” and the frontal, or “full-face view” (Schneider 6).

In addition to developing variations within the genre of portrait, by the seventeenth century artists had sufficiently expanded the range of their subjects, depicting not only the aristocracy and the clergy, but also members of many other social groups. “Merchants, craftsmen, bankers, humanist scholars and artists” themselves sat for portraits and thus appeared in the public eye (Schneider 6).

The latter addition to the subject range appears especially revealing for our discussion, since it means that artists started to openly depict themselves and thus emphasize their own social significance.

The tendency to individualism and personal identification in painting reflects the general interest to personality in the art that continued the anthropocentric ideas of the Renaissance and developed throughout the Baroque époque. In the literature of the period, one can observe a definite interest to various kinds of autobiographic narrative, and more and more self-portraits appear among the paintings as a kind of autobiographic sketches made by the artists (Schneider 113).

It is noteworthy, however, that the notion of self-portrait as such did not exist at the time, and what we now call a ‘self-portrait’ would then be described as the artist’s “own picture & done by himself” (van de Vall 98).

Rembrandt’s vast heritage in self-portraits

Although the genre of self-portrait was popular and widely practised by most artists in the Baroque period, Rembrandt remains unsurpassed in terms of the quantity of autobiographic images: apart from multiple etches, over forty paintings of himself have survived up to the present time (van de Vall 98).

A popular cartoon depicts Rembrandt as “a rather plump, jowly artist, palette and brush in hand, turning from his easel and calling [to his girlfriend]: “Hendrickje, I feel another self-portrait coming on. Bring in the funny hats” (qtd. in Wheelock 13). However, there is probably much more behind the multitude of Rembrandt’s self-portraits than a mere wish to try on another fancy headwear.

The reasons for emergence of this many Rembrandt’s self-portraits can be searched for in two directions. On the one hand, the artist could have used his own body as a material for exploring the complexity of human nature on the whole. On the other hand, Rembrandt’s self-portraits can be viewed as an opportunity for self-investigation and revelation of the artistic inner self. In addition, there might emerge still another interpretation: since Rembrandt’s self-portraits were meant for the market and sold, they could serve as a way “to gain honour and immortality and thus fame, and to appeal to a public of buyers and connoisseurs” (de Winkel 135).

Such commercial intent can also be interpreted more deeply, since through looking at the artist’s self-portrait the connoisseurs of his work could admire both the artist’s personality and his excellent technique (van de Vall 99). In each separate case, the intent behind Rembrandt’s self-portraits can be deduced individually, since in various periods of his life the artist produced astonishingly different samples of autobiographic paintings.

Conventionally, Rembrandt’s self-portraits can be grouped according to the three chronological periods: the early years in 1620s, the middle years spanning the next two decades, and the late years starting from the late 1640s. Each of those periods can be characterized by a certain purpose that inspired Rembrandt to paint his self-portraits, as well as features stylistic peculiarities indicative of deep internal motives underlying each painting.

The evolution of style and meaning in Rembrandt’s self-portraits

The early years.

The époque of Baroque brought about an obvious progress in exploration of the emotional side of personality. While the masters of the Renaissance observed the ways to render the inner emotion through pose and gesture, the art of Baroque expanded the artistic techniques by adding facial expression to the wealth of expressive means. Thus the interpretation of feelings in painting could be dramatically intensified and varied.

In his early self-portraits, Rembrandt definitely explores the multiple effects of facial expressions. Face becomes the focal point of his compositions, performing the key function of feeling representation. “Alarm, worry, torment, fear” — those are but a few of emotions depicted in etchings and paintings of the 1920s (Schneider 113).

Experimenting with his own face in front of the mirror, Rembrandt worked out a whole list of facial features, the interplay of which could render a widest possible range of emotions: “a forehead, two eyes, above them two eyebrows, and two cheeks beneath; further, between nose and chin, a mouth with two lips and all that is contained within it” (qtd. in Bruyn, van Rijn, & van de Wetering 165).

A brilliant expert in facial anatomy, Rembrandt apparently taught his pupils to closely observe one’s own face: “thus must one transform oneself entirely into an actor (…) in front of the mirror, being both performer and beholder” (qtd. in Bruyn, van Rijn, & van de Wetering 165).

One of the most significant facial features possessing an extreme expressive power was viewed by the seventeenth-century artists — and Rembrandt himself — in the mouth and the musculature surrounding it (Bruyn, van Rijn, & van de Wetering 165). This being a difficult facial element to depict, Rembrandt spent years perfecting his skill in constructing various facial expressions with the help of different mouth positions.

Experimenting with the shades of colors and the play of light and shadow, Rembrandt seeks for the most successful rendition of most varied emotions. Self-portraits with open mouth let him place in the teeth as an additional expressive touch. A mouth open in a cry of astonishment, surprise, despair, joy, or without any obvious reason — all this diversity can be seen in Rembrandt’s early autobiographic sketches.

As a result of his multiple experiences with facial expressions, by 1630s Rembrandt had worked out an encyclopedia of human emotions that he could apply in his later works. Such, for example, is the famous laughing face which occurs not only in the early self-portraits, but also in those of the late years (Bruyn, van Rijn, & van de Wetering 165).

A remarkable feature of Rembrandt’s early self-portraits is that — however renown the artist is for his ingenious depiction of clothes — there is hardly any attire in his early sketches. The reason for this can be found in the fact that during the initial period of his artistic work, Rembrandt appears to work in the tradition of a so-called tronie.

By this word is meant a picture that focuses on a certain detail of face, without emphasizing the unique personality of the sitter (de Winkel 137). Therefore, familiar and recognizable stereotypes were depicted, such as a wrinkled old man, a soldier, or a pretty young girl.

Since the image stopped at the level of the sitter’s shoulders, not much of clothing could be fitted in the picture. Rembrandt’s depicting himself as a tronie can be seen as a way of de-individualizing the image in terms of clothes. However, this lack of outward information was compensated by a splendid rendition of facial expression.

The middle years

As Rembrandt gradually gained social recognition and enjoyed considerable success as a commercial artist, his self-portraits demonstrate a tendency to a multitude of experiments.

It appears quite laborious to investigate all the range of techniques he employed in his paintings of 1630s, since it is extremely wide. The reasons for this can be found in the fact that Rembrandt ran a series of workshops at the time, and due to time pressure he often had to resort to assistants’ help in finishing the paintings.

Such can be the case with some of the self-portraits as well: while Rembrandt outlined the composition in general, especially talented apprentices were allowed to work on details of body and clothes in order to speed up the process (Wheelock 19). While the result of such collective work demonstrates excellent painting technique, it is difficult to assert whether some of Rembrandt’s self-portraits are his own works or workshop productions.

Against the background of social success, Rembrandt gained the opportunity to experiment with a large number of altering roles and social positions in his self-portraits.

Making use of the general understanding of clothes as a way of creating the desired image of self, Rembrandt juggled an endless number of costumes and attributes creating a new character in every painting. The question of which image reflects ‘the real’ Rembrandt of the time still remains unsolved: was it a prosperous burgher, a learned gentleman, or an insightful artist that he really was?

In terms of costume in Rembrandt’s self-portraits, one can single out three main tendencies: self-portraits in contemporary clothing, in antiquated costume, and in working dress.

It is quite rare that Rembrandt depicts himself in a formal pose and a fashionable dress. The reason for such preferences in attire can be viewed in the fact that Rembrandt wanted to show his difference from the average customers that ordered their portraits from him. Unlike other artists who depicted themselves in the same sumptuous robes as their customers, Rembrandt positions himself independently from the general crowd.

Taking into consideration that the artist was wealthy enough at the time to allow rich garments, such reluctance to mix with the general style can be viewed from the perspective of social inappropriateness of exuberant clothing for lower estate. Despite the exception provided to talented painters for breaking social stratification, Rembrandt apparently prefers to preserve the distinction of his class (de Winkel 147).

Perhaps one of the details that immediately springs to one’s mind when thinking about Rembrandt’s self-portraits is the beret. Indeed, in the self-portraits of the middle period, the painter used this kind of headwear most frequently. The more surprising is the fact that in the seventeenth century beret was an outdated type of clothing, either worn by servants or used as a part of official scholar costumes (de Winkel 164).

It can be therefore suggested that by widely using the outdated beret in his self-portraits, Rembrandt demonstrated a connection with the famous engravers of the previous century, Lucas and Dürer, highly appraised by him (de Winkel 188). Thus Rembrandt’s historicism and reverence for the art of the past can be deciphered through one small detail of costume.

Depicting himself in a working dress, Rembrandt demonstrates yet another peculiar way of distinguishing himself from the generally accepted standards.

As of the seventeenth century, there existed no specific occupational dress for the artists of the time, and yet Rembrandt appears in a working dress now and again in his self-portraits (de Winkel 151). Not only can working clothing be noticed on the paintings of the middle years, but it is also the dominant attire in Rembrandt’s late self-portraits.

Taking into account the peculiarities of Rembrandt’s late style (to be discussed below), this deviation from the rules and appearance in everyday clothes can be interpreted as the artist’s statement of individual freedom and non-conformance to the generally accepted standards.

The late years

As compared to the flamboyant images of the middle years, Rembrandt’s self-portraits of the late period demonstrate a dramatic change in tone and style. An “increased sense of gravity and serenity” dominate the portraits of the impoverished artist who enters “a brutally honest phase in his life” (Stein & Rosen 116).

Critics remark on the especial “fuzziness” and “lack of sharpness” in the images (van de Vall 93). Although this quality can be ascribed to the artist’s worsening eye-sight, there can be yet another explanation. By alternating the areas of sharpness and blurredness in his self-portraits, Rembrandt creates a lifelike effect of really looking at a person.

This effect corresponds to what happens in normal communication, when people tend to alternate direct look and side glances at the interlocutor. Therefore, the “moments of blindness or unfocused seeing are just as essential as moments of sharp sight” for perceiving the image (van de Vall 105).

Another peculiar quality that strikes the viewer in the late Rembrandt’s self-portraits is the authenticity with which the painter renders the eyes in his face. Having gathered the experience of his whole life, Rembrandt reveals himself as “a virtuoso of vision, both with regard to what he saw and also with regard to the way in which he represented seeing” (Durham 14).

“Believable eyes, living eyes, seeing eyes, even eyes looking at something we cannot see” are impeccably rendered by Rembrandt with a highest professionalism ever reached in the history of painting (Durham 14).

His look pierces the viewer of his late self-portraits, as if extending the frame of the picture and letting the image step out of it. Through this mastery of the eyes, Rembrandt renders the message of an extremely deepened spirituality he achieved in the last period of his paintings.

During the Baroque period, the genre of self-portrait enjoyed its golden age in the studio of Rembrandt van Rijn. Through his many autobiographic works, one can trace Rembrandt’s astonishing evolution from an artist experimenting with the expressive potential of mimics, through an artist playing with his social positions, to an artist deeply submerged in the spirituality of painting. Thus, self-portrait for Rembrandt becomes a way to reflect not only the outward changes but also the crucial inner transformations in the artist’s world.

Works Cited

• Schneider, Norbert. The Art of the Portrait: Masterpieces of European Portrait-Painting, 1420-1670 . Trans. Iain Galbraith. Köln: Taschen, 2002. Print.
• Bruyn, J., van Rijn, Rembrandt Harmenszoon, & van de Wetering, Ernst. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings: The Self-Portraits . Dordrecht: Springer, 2005. Print.
• Durham, John I. The Biblical Rembrandt: Human Painter in a Landscape of Faith . Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2004. Print.
• Stein, Murray, & Rosen, David H. Transformation: Emergence of the Self . Texas A&M University Press, 2005. Print.
• van de Vall, Renée. “Touching the Face: The Ethics of Visuality between Levinas and a Rembrandt Self-Portrait.” Compelling Visuality: The Work of Art in and out of History . Eds. Claire J. Farago and Robert Zwijnenberg. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. 93–111. Print.
• Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. “Rembrandt Self-Portraits: The Creation of a Myth.” Rembrandt, Rubens, and the Art of Their Time: Recent Perspectives . Eds. Roland E. Fleischer and Susan C. Scott. University Park, Center County, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, 1997. 12–35. Print.
• de Winkel, Marieke. Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings . Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006. Print.
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IvyPanda. (2018, May 14). The Art of Self-Portrait: Rembrandt by Rembrandt. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-art-of-self-portrait-rembrandt-by-rembrandt/

"The Art of Self-Portrait: Rembrandt by Rembrandt." IvyPanda , 14 May 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-art-of-self-portrait-rembrandt-by-rembrandt/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The Art of Self-Portrait: Rembrandt by Rembrandt'. 14 May.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The Art of Self-Portrait: Rembrandt by Rembrandt." May 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-art-of-self-portrait-rembrandt-by-rembrandt/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Art of Self-Portrait: Rembrandt by Rembrandt." May 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-art-of-self-portrait-rembrandt-by-rembrandt/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Art of Self-Portrait: Rembrandt by Rembrandt." May 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-art-of-self-portrait-rembrandt-by-rembrandt/.

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Edgar Degas: Photographer

"These days, Degas abandons himself entirely to his new passion for photography," wrote an artist friend in autumn 1895, the moment of the great Impressionist painter's most intense exploration of photography. Degas's major surviving photographs little known even among devotees of the artist's paintings and pastels, are insightfully analyzed and richly reproduced for the first time in this volume, which accompanies an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Bibliothéque Nationale de France.

Degas's photographic figure studies, portraits of friends and family, and self-portraits—especially those in which lamp-lit figures emerge from darkness—are imbued with a Symbolist spirit evocative of realms more psychological than physical. Most were made in the evenings, when Degas transformed dinner parties into photographic soirees, requisitioning the living rooms of his friends, arranging oil lamps, and directing the poses of dinner guests enlisted as models. "He went back and forth ... running from one end of the room to the other with an expression of infinite happiness," wrote Daniel Halévy, the son of Degas's close friends Ludovic and Louise Halévy, describing one such evening. "At half-past eleven everybody left; Degas, surrounded by three laughing girls, carried his camera as proudly as a child carrying a rifle."

Lively eyewitness accounts of Degas's photographic activity from the journals of Daniel Halévy and Julie Manet, as well as from Degas's own letters, are included in Malcolm Daniel's essay, "The Atmosphere of Lamps or Moonlight" which presents a fascinating account of Degas's brief but passionate embrace of photography. Daniel explores the psychological connection between events in the aging artist's life and his decision to take up the camera and demonstrates the aesthetic connections between Degas's photographs and his work in other media. Eugenia Parry's essay, "Edgar Degas's Photographic Theater," illuminates the fertile interplay between painting, posing, theatrical direction, and photography in Degas's work, and Theodore Reff, in "Degas Chez Tasset," sheds light on the hitherto barely known Guillaume Tasset and his daughter Delphine, from whom Degas sought photographic supplies, advice, and services. Finally, this volume includes a scholarly catalogue raisonné and census of prints, an essential tool for further study of Degas's photographs.

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Daniel, Malcolm R., and Edgar Degas. 1998. Edgar Degas, Photographer . New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art : Distributed by H.N. Abrams.

King Charles unveils his first portrait since coronation at Buckingham Palace 

Britain’s  King Charles III unveiled a new portrait of himself at Buckingham Palace Tuesday.

The portrait, painted by British artist Jonathan Yeo, is the first official portrait of the king to be completed since his coronation, according to the royal family's X account.

In a video, Charles pulled a black covering, unveiling the large red portrait alongside Yeo. The king, 75, is wearing a Welsh Guards uniform in the piece and holding a sword. A butterfly hovers over his shoulder.

In a statement shared by the Royal Family, Yeo said he started working on the portrait when the king was still the prince of Wales, and that it "evolved as the subject’s role in our public life has transformed."

"I do my best to capture the life experiences and humanity etched into any individual sitter’s face, and I hope that is what I have achieved in this portrait," Yeo said. "To try and capture that for His Majesty The King, who occupies such a unique role, was both a tremendous professional challenge, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed and am immensely grateful for."

This isn't the first portrait Yeo has worked on for the Royal Family. Yeo completed paintings of Charles' father, the Duke of Edinburgh , in 2008, and his wife, Camilla , the then-Duchess of Cornwall, in 2014.

The portrait of Charles will eventually be exhibited in Draper's Hall in London.

The unveiling of the portrait comes two weeks after Charles returned to public duties following his cancer diagnosis a little over three months ago. Last month, Buckingham Palace said that the king’s medical team is “very encouraged” by the progress of his recovery but did not disclose any further details.

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Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger’s penetrating essays explore the power of female friendships

This cover image released by Dial Press shows “First Love” by Lilly Dancyger. (Dial Press via AP)

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Who means more to you — your friends or your lovers? In a vivid, thoughtful and nuanced collection of essays, Lilly Dancyger explores the powerful role that female friendships played in her chaotic upbringing marked by her parents’ heroin use and her father’s untimely death when she was only 12.

“First Love: Essays on Friendship” begins with a beautiful paean to her cousin Sabina, who was raped and murdered at age 20 on her way home from a club. As little kids, their older relatives used to call them Snow White and Rose Red after the Grimm’s fairy tale, “two sisters who are not rivals or foils, but simply love each other.”

That simple, uncomplicated love would become the template for a series of subsequent relationships with girls and women that helped her survive her self-destructive adolescence and provided unconditional support as she scrambled to create a new identity as a “hypercompetent” writer, teacher and editor. “It’s true that I’ve never been satisfied with friendships that stay on the surface. That my friends are my family, my truest beloveds, each relationship a world of its own,” she writes in the title essay “First Love.”

The collection stands out not just for its elegant, unadorned writing but also for the way she effortlessly pivots between personal history and spot-on cultural criticism that both comments on and critiques the way that girls and women have been portrayed — and have portrayed themselves — in the media, including on online platforms like Tumblr and Instagram.

For instance, she examines the 1994 Peter Jackson film, “Heavenly Creatures,” based on the true story of two teenage girls who bludgeoned to death one of their mothers. And in the essay “Sad Girls,” about the suicide of a close friend, she analyzes the allure of self-destructive figures like Sylvia Plath and Janis Joplin to a certain type of teen, including herself, who wallows in sadness and wants to make sure “the world knew we were in pain.”

In the last essay, “On Murder Memoirs,” Dancyger considers the runaway popularity of true crime stories as she tries to explain her decision not to attend the trial of the man charged with killing her cousin — even though she was trained as a journalist and wrote a well-regarded book about her late father that relied on investigative reporting. “When I finally sat down to write about Sabina, the story that came out was not about murder at all,” she says. “It was a love story.”

Readers can be thankful that it did.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

Artist behind King Charles III's controversial portrait shares why he used the color red

Charles unveiled the portrait himself at Buckingham Palace.

The artist behind the new portrait of King Charles III is sharing insight into some of his more controversial artistic choices, like the use of the color red.

Jonathan Yeo, a U.K.-based artist, painted the portrait of Charles -- unveiled Tuesday at Buckingham Palace -- over the course of three years.

The portrait, which stands over 6 feet tall, features a striking red background and shows Charles wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, of which he was made Regimental Colonel in 1975, according to the palace.

According to a new description of the portrait shared on Yeo's website, the artist chose the "vivid" red background, in part, to bring a "contemporary jolt" to the painting.

"The vivid colour of the glazes in the background echo the uniform's bright red tunic, not only resonating with the royal heritage found in many historical portraits but also injecting a dynamic, contemporary jolt into the genre with its uniformly powerful hue / providing a modern contrast to more traditional depictions," the description reads.

In his own words, Yeo said the red is also designed to help Charles' military uniform fade into the background.

"As a portrait artist, you get this unique opportunity to spend time with and get to know a subject, so I wanted to minimize the visual distractions and allow people to connect with the human being underneath," Yeo said in a statement on his website.

The butterfly located above Charles' shoulder in the painting is described as being representative of not only the king's transformation to monarch, but also his passion for environmental causes.

"The Monarch butterfly is believed to have been named after an English King (William of Orange) due to its distinctive color," Yeo's website reads. "And this migratory species is already one of the most affected by climate change because of alterations in spring temperatures."

The unexpectedly modern painting and it's bold red tone drew mixed reactions online quickly after its unveiling, at which both Charles and Yeo were present.

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"I think this is beautiful and such a break from the traditional portraits," one commenter wrote on Buckingham Palace's Instagram post about the portrait.

"I'm sorry but his portrait looks like he's in hell," wrote another commenter.

Others in the comments section saw a little of both sides, with one person writing, "I would have loved this if it was any other color than red. He really captured the essence of him in the face, but the harshness of the red doesn't match the softness of his expression."

King Charles gives Prince William a military title with close ties to Prince Harry

And still others commented that they would have expected even more of a more nature-based portrait for Charles.

"Given his love of nature and preservation, I am surprised there was not a natural landscape portrayed behind him," wrote one commenter.

The portrait of Charles is his first official portrait since his coronation last year.

The painting was first commissioned in 2020, when Charles was the Prince of Wales, a title that has since been passed to his eldest son Prince William , after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

King Charles visits cancer center in 1st return to public duties since cancer diagnosis

"I do my best to capture the life experiences etched into any individual sitter's face," Yeo said in a statement shared Tuesday by the palace. "In this case, my aim was also to make reference to the traditions of Royal portraiture but in a way that reflects a 21st Century Monarchy and, above all else, to communicate the subject's deep humanity. I'm unimaginably grateful for the opportunity to capture such an extraordinary and unique person, especially at the historic moment of becoming King."

Yeo painted the portrait in his London studio in between four sittings with Charles from 2021 to 2023, according to the palace.

The painting will be on display for one month beginning May 16 at the Philip Mould Gallery in London. Then the painting will go on to hang in Draper's Hall, an historic building in London that was originally owned by King Henry VIII.

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• King Charles
• Royal Family

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Selena Gomez arrives at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in all white Self-Portrait mini dress

The mega pop star and actor, Selena Gomez has touched down at the French Riviera.

Selena was greeted by fans at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival where she will be attending and promoting the screening of her latest musical crime-comedy film, ‘Emilia Pérez’, helmed by French filmmaker, Jacques Audiard. She will be starring alongside Zoe Saldana (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Édgar Ramírez (Florida Man).

Gomez was adorned in chic peplum mini dress by the Han Chong led clothing company, ‘Self -Portrait’. The gorgeously tailored outfit, buttoned down by gold pin accents almost made her look like a princess. Almost? Lets scratch that. She had a Aspinal of London’s Midi Mayfair Raffia hand bag as her accompaniment, along with her Roger Vivier Viv’ Canard slingback pumps, complemented her ensemble tenfold.

All in all though her outfit looks simple, it is actually very meticulously thought of. It keeps her aura and theme very organized.

Her latest feature on Jacques Audiard’s Emila Pérez will grace the screen alongside Yorgos Lanthimos' "Kinds of Kindness," boasting performances by "Poor Things" actors Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. Also sharing the spotlight are Ali Abbasi's "The Apprentice" and Paul Schrader's "Oh Canada," with Richard Gere in the lead role. This distinguished lineup is set to compete at the 77th edition of the film festival.

‘Emilia Pérez’ marks Selena's newest cinematic endeavor. Simultaneously, she's immersed in the shooting of the fourth season of the Hulu crime-comedy series "Only Murders in the Building," sharing the screen with Martin Short and Steve Martin. Additionally, Selena is set to reunite with her former "Wizards of Waverly Place" co-star David Henrie for a reboot of the beloved sitcom series.