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Artists have painted self-portraits throughout their careers, but many ask why.
Self-portraits are a vital tool for an artist's self-exploration, and they can reveal many things about them. Art is the perfect medium for people to explore their identity and experiences, and many artists have used their work to reflect on their lives, themselves and the events that have happened to them.
Self-portraits did not become a key genre for artists until the early Renaissance period. Before then, mirrors were expensive and hard to come by, and poorer artists did not have a reliable way of seeing themselves.
When mirrors became more widely available, many artists began to create self-portraits as a way of showing off their skills to prospective clients. They did not need to pay a model to sit for them, and they could create a self-portrait whenever they desired without the need to wait on anyone.
However, many artists also used self-portraiture to explore themselves and their identities. Rembrandt is particularly famed for his self-portraits, having painted over 100 during his lifetime. In one particular self-portrait, painted when he was 53 years old, he depicts himself with raw honesty. This portrait reflects on the experiences of his life. The light focuses on his face, which is lined and old, and he openly meets the viewer's gaze.
Picasso is another artist who painted many self-portraits throughout his life. Through them, the viewer can see not only his ever-shifting art style but how he viewed himself and his identity at the time. As he ages, his portraits become more abstract and experimental, seemingly shifting with his mood.
In a self-portrait from his so-called Blue era, he is shown as gaunt and drawn, perhaps influenced by the suicide of his friend Carles Casagemas and the depression he sank into.
Frida Kahlo is another artist famed for using her art to constantly reflect on who she was and how her trauma affected her perception of herself. She painted several self-portraits, with many depicting her injuries and pain caused by an accident in her youth and numerous miscarriages throughout her life.
One of her most famous self-portraits, The Two Fridas, shows Kahlo's pain during her divorce from Diego Rivera. It depicts one Frida in a white dress, bleeding after cutting the main artery, symbolising her break from Rivera. The surgical forceps that she holds represent the continuous surgery she endured throughout her life due to many major health complications.
Kahlo's self-portraits were the best mode of expression for her to explore and dissect her entire being. Her features are often impassive in each self-portrait, and she is often seated. The variation then comes from the symbols that she attaches to each painting - for example, in Self-Portrait With Monkey, Kahlo describes the monkeys as representing the children she could not bear because of the injuries she sustained due to a bus accident in 1925.
One of the most analysed paintings in art history, Diego Velasquez's Las Meninas, is two things at once: both a portrait and a self-portrait. Finished in 1656, the portrait shows the Spanish Infanta Margarita being attended to by her entourage. The monarchs of Spain, Philip IV and Mariana of Austria, are reflected in the mirror hung on the wall, and the artist himself is shown painting at an easel on the left hand of the scene.
Velasquez's choice to portray himself amongst the royal family of Spain was an ambitious one. He exemplifies pride in his profession, and his association with the royals sets him apart from other painters and artists. Some art historians also theorise that the painting serves as a resume for Velasquez's artwork and distinguishes him as close to people of influence.
Throughout history, women were traditionally excluded from creating art in the same way men did. For example, during the Renaissance, all women were banned from taking life drawing classes in Italy, so female painters had to turn to other avenues to gain experience and produce work. This included turning to themselves as their models.
Sofonisba Anguissola was one such painter who used herself as a model, depicting herself at work at her easel, painting the Virgin Mary and Christ. In her 1556 self-portrait, she locks eyes with the viewer, with one hand still raised to the canvas, demure but equally challenging and forcing them to take her seriously as an artist.
Several centuries later, in 19th-century Russia, artist Marie Bashkirtseff painted In The Studio in 1881, showing herself and a group of women painting a young boy who is modelling for them. By showing women at work and flipping the gender norms of the time, she actively demanded greater visibility for women in art.
With the help of smartphones and cameras, self-portraiture is remarkably easy today. Some people wonder where the line is drawn between selfies and self-portraits, with others arguing that there is little difference between the two.
Amalia Ulman explored this concept through an Instagram project, transforming herself into online tropes, such as cute girl or life goddess. Through selfies, she confronted the question of authenticity via selfies and photographs, and her work begs the question of where the line is drawn between a simple selfie and a telling self-portrait.
Artist Patricia Lay-Dorsey began taking self-portraits after being diagnosed with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis. She stated that she aimed to see every moment of her life as worthy of note and used self-portraits to help claim her identity as a disabled person.
For centuries, the self-portrait has been used as a form of expression, exploration, and practice. Artists may have begun creating them for ease and a way to practice with a free, constantly available model, but they quickly evolved into a rich genre of their own.
Self-portraits continue even today, aided by photography and the availability of smartphones with cameras. They can say so much about an artist and their perspective and are much more than a simple picture or drawing - they are a window into the artist's life.
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