
Four Famous Self-Portraits You Should Know
Portrait painting is the art of depicting people and their characters in a picture. Today, portrait paintings are a staple in the repertoire of many painters. Throughout the evolution of portrait painting, one of its variants emerged as an independent genre - the self-portrait.
Artists across epochs placed themselves at the centre of their works, including
- Claude Monet,
- Pablo Picasso,
- Gerhard Richter,
- Frida Kahlo,
- August Macke,
- Vincent van Gogh,
- Paula Modersohn-Becker,
- Otto Dix, and
- Egon Schiele.
The roots of self-portraits are said to go back to antiquity. However, this genre only gained notable popularity from the 15th century onwards, when various renowned artists created portraits of themselves.
The earliest self-portraits by artists are considered to be the works of Albrecht Dürer. However, other Renaissance artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt, also began to explore self-portraiture. Since then, self-portraiture has evolved into a popular subject in painting.
Self-Portraits in Art - Artists Turn Themselves into Models
The special character of self-portraits - both for the artists and viewers - lies in the way that they dissolve the typical division of roles in the painting process. Normally, painters observe their fellow human beings and their surroundings. They then express their subjective impressions in their works. However, self-portraits take on both roles and depict the subject themselves.
Artists offer the public unique insights into their inner lives. Unlike portraits of other people, they can directly channel their emotions into the works. In addition, self-portraits in art can fulfil other purposes. When famous painters create self-portraits, they have full control over how they appear in the picture. They may depict themselves in an idealised and embellished way but also in a very realistic or abstract way. Thus, self-portraits can become an effective tool for self-staging.
Some painters use self-portraits as a means of documentation, capturing certain stages of their biography in a picture. |
Occasionally, self-portraits in painting simply serve as a way to practise depicting faces. In this case, their own face becomes a very convenient and always available model. In terms of technique, the various possible perspectives, and cropping, self-portraits are hardly any different from portraits. As with portrait painting, there are also subgroups defined by the respective image detail. The same applies to the head position and the viewing angle of the person, for example, the "frontal view", the "profile portrait", or the "half profile".
Here, we present some famous self-portraits and their artists.
Famous Self-Portrait by Rembrandt: "Self-Portrait with Saskia"
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) was one of the most renowned painters who discovered the self-portrait as early as the 17th century. Today, the Dutch painter is one of the most famous representatives of Baroque art.
He worked with various techniques, primarily painting, etching and drawing. He also trained young artists in his studio. Rembrandt mainly painted landscapes, genre scenes, still lifes, historical paintings, and portraits. Among his most famous works are
- "The Night Watch",
- "The Blinding of Samson", and
- "The Anatomy of Dr Tulp".
For many years, he earned his living as a well-booked portrait painter. At the same time, however, he also began creating portraits of himself very early on. Over the course of around forty years, he regularly portrayed himself. In this way, he meticulously documented the process of his ageing - as if in a diary.
For him, however, the self-portraits also had a very practical use. He used himself as a model for studies, practising the depiction of human facial features on his reflection. In his self-portraits, he showed himself in various emotional states, such as happy, sad, contemplative or surprised. He also experimented with how light and shadow could be used to emphasise facial expressions.
Self-portraits make up a significant part of Rembrandt's oeuvre. He is said to have created between 80 and 100 pictures of himself throughout his career. |
One of his most famous self-portraits is the painting "Self-Portrait with Saskia". In this work from 1638, Rembrandt drew inspiration from the Parable of the Prodigal Son from the New Testament. He depicted himself as a young man who lavishly spent his father's money. The woman at his side is his wife, Saskia. Today, the picture is part of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister collection in Dresden, Germany.
Armin Mueller-Stahl: "Self-Portrait with Cigarette"
Most people will know him as an internationally successful character actor, but he also has many other artistic talents: Armin Mueller-Stahl.
The German artist, born in 1930, is not only a renowned actor but also a trained concert violinist and author of poems and novels. His great love, however, is the visual arts, which have been his main focus for several years.
With his paintings, drawings and graphics, he has already organised numerous exhibitions. Mueller-Stahl works predominantly in figurative genres such as landscapes, still lifes and portraits. His style is characterised by an expressiveness that sometimes borders on abstraction. Nevertheless, the character of his motif always retains its original character. This is particularly true of his portraits, which frequently depict prominent personalities such as
- Helmut Schmidt,
- Ludwig van Beethoven,
- David Bowie or
- Liz Taylor.
He often uses himself as a subject. In his self-portraits, he shows himself at various stages of his life. Sometimes he painted himself with a violin and, at other times, as a character in a film in which he was acting. In his 2021 lithograph "Self-Portrait with Cigarette", he depicts himself with a moustache and a cigarette at the corner of his mouth. This clearly evokes earlier times when he still wore a beard. The black-and-white lithograph emphasises his facial features very directly and expressively. Only one-half of his face is fully recognisable - as if emerging from a shadow.
Andy Warhol: "Self-Portrait"
He was the king of Pop Art and a master of self-presentation - the American artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987). His artistic vision contradicted all conventional standards. This applied to both his conception of art and his choice of motifs and artistic forms of expression.
Warhol worked with various techniques such as painting, graphic art, sculpture and film. His trademark, however, was the serial production of artworks using the screen-printing technique. This was also a key element of his artistic philosophy.
Warhol was one of the first artists to pursue financial success. For many in the art world, this was considered a taboo. |
Warhol also broke new ground in his choice of motifs. He quoted numerous objects that he found in pop culture, mass media, and consumerism. He thus elevated seemingly banal everyday objects to art. His most famous works include a series of pictures with "Campbell's" soup cans and numerous portraits of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Mick Jagger, and Mao.
Warhol did not only create artworks but also presented himself as an art object. As part of his self-staging, he adopted his signature look with a white wig and sunglasses. He also put himself and his life centre stage in several films. Self-portraits also contributed to the staging of the overall artwork "Andy Warhol".
In numerous works, he reflected on his personality and his status within the (art) world. The "Self-Portrait" is part of a large series that Warhol began in 1967. A photo booth image served as the basis for this series of pictures. He reproduced it using screen-printing in various sizes and basic colours. Warhol depicts himself here with his hand on his chin in the pose of an intellectual. However, large parts of his face remain hidden in shadow. This lends the artist a mysterious aura. Famous self-portraits like these contributed significantly to Warhol's public image and his myth.
Famous Self-Portrait by Max Beckmann: "Self-Portrait with Saxophone"
Max Beckmann (1884-1950) can be counted among the foremost German painters of Classical Modernism. However, he cannot be clearly assigned to any of the painting styles that were popular at the turn of the 20th century. Rather, he developed a highly independent style in which he drew inspiration from various epochs.
Influences from Expressionism and Cubism, as well as Old Masters, Classicism and Impressionism, are recognisable. At the core of his work, Beckmann always remained committed to figurative painting.
Although today he is often associated with Expressionism, he clearly distanced himself from this movement during his life. For example, he refused to join the Brücke’ artists' group. Nevertheless, he fell out of favour during the Nazi regime and was declared degenerate. Today, Max Beckmann is regarded as one of the most important representatives of German Expressionism.
His works are displayed in renowned museums worldwide and fetch top prices at auctions. Beckmann's thematic focal points included landscapes and portraits, and since the late 1880s, also self-portraits. Among the famous painters of self-portraits, Max Beckmann was one of the most productive, as he captured himself in pictures in various situations throughout his life in over 40 paintings and other graphic works.
In 1930, he created the oil painting "Self-Portrait with Saxophone". At that time, Beckmann was fascinated by theatre, circus, and music. In this work, he immersed himself in that world by portraying himself as an acrobat. The saxophone in his hands symbolises contemporary music - especially jazz. However, his face in the partial shadow and the muted colours convey the artist's mood, which ranges from anxious to sceptical. The original oil painting "Self-Portrait with Saxophone" by Max Beckmann is now part of the Kunsthalle Bremen collection.