Self Portrait Information

A portrait is a representation of the physical or psychological likeness of a real or imaginary person. Portraits are most often created with the media and techniques of drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. Thy are made for a wide variety of purposes - authority or power, fame, as memorials, self-obsession, self-expression, or social standing, Two conflicting objectives characterize portrait art in all cultures: the desire t represent the subject accurately and the desire to transform or idealize the subject, This task falls on the artist who must also decide the degree to which he or she is willing to please the sitter.

Portraits include visual clues to the subject's identity, status, personality, and character. In most portraits, the focus is on the face with all the elements of the composition designed to draw attention to the face. Before the invention of photography, a portrait was the only way to record someone's likeness. After photography made realistic portraiture possible to many social classes, not just the rich ad powerful artists were free to become more experimental and explore new kinds or portraiture.

The characteristics of the portrait are amplified in the self-portrait, a subject long undertaken by artists, using a model who is always available and at no cost. The self-portrait is the optimum opportunity for an artist to make the most pleasing or piercing revelation of his or her character and personality. Artists choose to represent themselves objectively or present a more personal expression of their personalities or characters. A self-portrait is the most personal story an artist can tell.

For most artists, a self-portrait is an opportunity to express their identity to depict how they perceive themselves, not how others may perceive them.

Identity Profile Questions:

• Who are you?
• Where do you live?
• Why were you given your name?
• Is there a specific culture or heritage with which you identify? If so, what is it?
• How would you describe how you look?
• How would you describe your personality?
• What are your likes and dislikes?
• Do you think others see you as you see yourself?
• What do you most want people to know or understand about you?
• What clues about yourself could you present in a self-portrait?

Chuck Close Self Portrait

This Self Portrait was painted in 1997. Chuck Close was born in 1940 in Tacoma, Washington. As a child he was severely dyslexic, but wasn't officially diagnosed until he was an adult. Even so, he found ways to overcome his disorder by breaking down information into small units for individual focus. This organizational strategy helped with his studying, but later it also contributed to the development of his unique adult painting style.

Portrait of Kara Walker

Up Close

Jacob Lawrence Self Portrait

Jacob Lawrence was born in 1917 in New Jersey. He is considered to be one of the most prominent African-American artists. He was influenced by the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. 

This is part of his sixty panel series called The Migration of the Negro, which became the turning point of his artistic career.

This is one of his narrative series titled Harriet Tubman.

Though his work specifically honors African-American social history and culture, it also conveys universally shared experiences of the struggle for freedom and justice for all people. His Builders series depicts men and women of different colors constructively working together.

Grant Wood Self Portrait

Grant Wood was born in 1891 and grew up on a small farm in Iowa. He attended art classes as often as funds would allow and at the University of Iowa he went to classes without enrolling. When he was drafted in World War I he painted camouflage on artillery. When he returned home he taught to high school students until he could support himself as an artist. He traveled to Europe often.

This is Wood's famous American Gothic painting that brought the artist overnight popular and critical national fame at age 39.

Vincent Van Gogh, Self Portrait

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Holland in 1853. This self portrait is one of 43 that he painted in his lifetime. Self-portrait was painted in 1889, one year before he died.

This is The Potato Eaters, regarded as his first masterpiece, painted in 1885.

This is one of Van Gogh's more recognizable paintings, Starry Night over the Rhone.

Van Gogh completed over 450 works between 1884 and 1889, and surprisingly this is the only painting he ever sold. It is The Red Vineyard painted in 1888.

Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun

 Born in Paris in 1755. Her father Louis Vigee was himself a painter. She married Pierre Lebrun and later had one daughter, Julie, in 1780.

 She became a success with this painting of Marie Antionette in 1778. The French Revolution began in 1789 and Lebrun had to escape with her daughter to Italy.

This is Madame Rousseau and her daughter (1789)

This is Portrait of Alexander Borisovich Kurakin (1797)