Friday, September 22, 2017

Self-portraits by modern European men

Anton Graff
Self-portrait with eyeshade
1813
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Francisco Goya
Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta
1820
oil on canvas
Minneapolis Institute of Art

George Hendrik Breitner
Self-portrait with pince-nez
ca. 1882
oil on panel
Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

ON RACHMANINOFF'S BIRTHDAY

Quick! a last poem before I go
off my rocker. Oh Rachmaninoff!
Onset, Massachusetts. Is it the fig-newton
playing the horn? Thundering windows
of hell, will your tubes ever break
into powder? Oh my palace of oranges,
junk shop, staples, umber, basalt;
I'm a child again when I was really
miserable, a grope pizzicato. My pocket
of rhinestone, yoyo, carpenter's pencil,
amethyst, hypo, campaign button,
is the room full of smoke? Shit
on the soup, let it burn. So it's back.
You'll never be mentally sober.

– written in 1953 by Frank O'Hara and published in Lunch Poems (1964)

Paul Gauguin
Self-portrait
1885
oil on canvas
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Vincent van Gogh
Self-portrait
1889
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Richard Gerstl
Semi-nude self-portrait
1904-05
oil on canvas
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Richard Gerstl
Nude self-portrait with palette
1908
oil on canvas
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Egon Schiele
Self-portrait with striped shirt
1910
drawing with pigment
Leopold Museum. Vienna

Egon Schiele
Nude self-portrait
1910
drawing with pigment
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Egon Schiele
Seated male nude (self-portrait)
1910
drawing with pigment
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Egon Schiele
Self-portrait with splayed fingers
1911
drawing with pigment
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Egon Schiele
Self-portrait with lowered head
1912
oil on canvas
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Egon Schiele
Self-portrait with striped sleeves
1915
drawing with pigment
Leopold Museum, Vienna

William Orpen
Ready To Start (self-portrait)
1917
oil on panel
Imperial War Museum, London

"Painted shortly after his arrival in France, Orpen is inspecting himself in the mirror wearing his military uniform.  In a wonderfully revealing self-portrait, he sets out an artistic agenda of colour, pattern, light and texture and a social agenda of drink and sensuality that were to be fulfilled during his time in France."

 curator's notes, Imperial War Museum