Research Point: Self Portraits - Part Three

Why do artists paint self portraits? There may be many possible reasons: As a product for sale (see above and below about Rembrandt), to show off technical skill (see Parmigianino), as a convenient way to practise facial expressions (Rembrandt again), to proclaim their status (see Dürer, Velazques,Van Dyck) and their purpose in life as and artist (Artemesia Gentileschi, Philip Guston)  or as a sort of visual autobiography (Rembrandt again).  Over the years the purpose of self portraiture has developed further; some have used it as an exploration of psychological or physical states ( Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo, Edvard Munch, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner) or as a means of social commentary (Felix Nussbaum - self portrait with Jewish Identity Card 1943). Some prolific self portraitists are simply narcissists (Courbet) while others use their body as a means to express something and are portraying concepts or characters other than themselves (Cindy Sherman, Ana Mendieta). 

As time progressed, artists started to explore other uses for self portraits - in particular their use to explore their own mental, physical or spiritual states of being.

Egon Schiele

click to access link to one of Schiele's self portraits on the MOMA website

A lot of Schiele's work is concerned with the human body, sexuality and death. He painted many self portraits during his career and they all seem to have a psychological intensity to them. Physically he is stick thin and angular which makes for some very striking images. In one image he even portrays himself as saint Sebatian in a hail of arrows as if to say he is prepared to suffer and die for his art.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Click to link to Self-Portait as a Soldier

In this expressionist work of 1915 was painted not long after Kirchner was discharged from military service as being unfit for service for psychological reasons during World War One. He portrays himself in uniform with cigarette in mouth, He is in the studio and there is a model but he has his face turned away from her. His eyes are dark as if they are unable to see and his painting hand is severed. This is not a pleasant image and clear expresses how Kirchner feels emasculated and stunted creatively by the affects of the war.

Frida Kahlo

"I've done my paintings well and they have a message of pain". Frida Kahlo's pain is well documented both physical resulting from a bus accident and psychological pain from her relationship with her unfaithful husband. Her paintings have a child-like quality but her face is always clearly recognisable with her characteristic monobrow. She is like an icon or her own logo. Some also argue that there is political content to many of her self portraits. Whatever the truth and despite her simple treatment of her own features, her surrealist self portraits do not fail in their scope of communicating pain.

Click here for image of Broken Column on Learner.org

Click here for "wounded Deer" On Frida Kahlo. Org

Edvard Munch

Click Here for Edvard Munch's 'Self Portrait in Hell' 1903 on Wikimedia

Laura Cumming describes Munch as an "enthusiastic miserabilist" which is demonstrated in this self portrait. He is not really in hell but paints himself as a victim of psychological torment. This is apparently how he felt during the fallout after the tumultuous end to a doomed affair during which he accidentally shot off the end of his own finger (both lovers were trying to out do each other as to who was going to kill themselves first - in the end both survived but Munch described himself as living in a kind of hell afterwards). 

Both the picture and Much's description of events are all rather melodramatic. however, the self portrait does communicate a sense of discomfort and hopelessness so I guess on that level it succeeds.

Felix Nussbaum

Here we touch on social commentary. This artist portrays himself against a dark grey background and a forbidding sky showing his Jewish identity card and the star of David on his coat. The painting feels claustrophobic with an atmosphere of tension and fear - as it should with the subject it depicts. Nussbaum eventually became a victim of the gas chambers at Auschwitz

Click Here for Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Card 1943 on Wikimedia

Gustave Courbet

Was by no means a private person - he liked to live life open to public scrutiny. If he were alive today I would imagine him as a 'celeb' constantly updating his blog and his twitter feed. He liked to have himself photographed always trying to show himself off to his best advantage. He painted numerous self portraits - in some of which he played a role - for example he played a cello in one painting even though he didn't know how. Whatever the story, Courbet was the main protagonist. There isn't any soul searching going on here - the artist is quite simply in love with his own presence. Even over the passing of the years he does not acknowledge any deterioration in his looks and paints himself as young and robust. 

The Meeting 1854

In the meeting Courbet is greeted by a welcoming party from the town where he is arriving. These important dignitaries from the town afford him the greatest respect - taking their hats off and lowering their gazes.  Courbet's fellow artists at the time thought this was hilarious - pointing out they only Courbet had a shadow as if 'he alone could stop the rays of the Sun" the painting got two nicknames "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet" and "Fortune bowing to Genius".

Reference Material used: 

"A Face to the World - On Self Portraits" by Laura Cummings (Harper Press 2010). 

The Oxford History of Art "Portraiture" by Shearer West (Oxford University Press 2004)