Self-portrait

A self-portrait is an artwork in which an artist represents themself. It can depict the artist’s appearance, identity, or imagined persona.

Arnolfini Portrait: A 1434 painting by Jan van Eyck depicting Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife. Its debated mirror reflection and witness-like presence invite comparison with artists inserting themselves into other people’s scenes.
Mirror: A reflective surface that forms an image of objects through reflected light. Mirrors let artists observe their own appearance while painting or drawing.
Jan van Eyck: A fifteenth-century Netherlandish painter known for detailed oil paintings and refined surface effects. His presence in the Arnolfini Portrait is often discussed as an early instance of an artist appearing in a painted scene.
Identity: The qualities and affiliations through which a person understands and presents who they are. Artists use clothing, setting, expression, and symbols to shape how their identity appears.
Portrait painting: A painting representing a particular person, usually made by someone other than the subject. The artist’s identity as both maker and subject distinguishes a self-portrait from a conventional commissioned portrait.
Self-Portrait with Two Circles: A late-sixteenth-century painting by Rembrandt showing the artist at work before a canvas. Rembrandt’s monumental image turns the artist’s tools and gaze into a claim to professional status.
Portraiture: The artistic representation of a particular person, often emphasizing likeness or character. Self-portraiture adapts portrait conventions while making artist and subject the same person.
Albrecht Dürer: A German Renaissance artist known for prints, paintings, and influential self-portraits. Dürer’s early, carefully composed self-portraits helped establish the genre’s possibilities.
Autobiography: A written account of a person’s life told by that person. Like autobiography, a self-portrait selects and arranges details into a version of a life.
Group portrait: An artwork depicting several people together as a group. An artist may appear within a group portrait without making the entire work a self-portrait.

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