10 Self Portraits and What They Say
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
I did a new video blog about self-portraits. You can check out in my Artsy Sister Youtube channel. Please give a like and subscribe. The first painting shows Goya and his doctor. He made this painting as a thank you for his doctor.
The man had saved his life. We know of this doctor thanks to this painting. The second painting features Frida with cropped hair. There is a lyric to a song on top. It means that you stopped loving me when my hair got short.
Frida painted this after her divorce. She is sporting a gender-neutral outfit. She wants to show that she doesn’t need a man in her life. She will now be her own man. The earrings and shoes represent her women hood.
In Mexico in the 40s, it was seen bad for a woman to divorce her husband. However, Frida got tired of her husband so she sent him packing. The other painting features Vermeer painting an allegory of art.
His back is turned to us. He wants the viewer to focus on what he considers painting. He starts his painting with the most expensive pigment, the color blue. He uses it to highlight what he considers the most important in his paintings.
Las Meninas is Diego Velazquez showing the viewer how much he has risen thanks to his talents. He is so powerful that he can hang out with the Hasburg princess as her equal.
Nicolas Poussin’s self-portraits is a treatise on Neo Classical art. Even his own person is idealized. He smoothed out most of the wrinkles and he even wore a wig. Norman Rockwell’s self-portrait tells us of his painter’s block.
He is literally painting a blank and it is due tomorrow. In a sense, it is quite similar to the Vermeer self-portrait. Peter Paul Rubens painted himself with his rich noble wife. Due to his talent, he was able to make it as an artist.
He even got married to someone of a higher status. So, this painting is just a power flex on his part. Mangritte’s surrealism self-portrait is about his desire to paint what he thinks and not what he sees.
He also wants the viewer to see beyond what is painted in the canvas. He wants you to look at the hidden meaning of his artwork. Landseer shows him sketching with his two dogos. He isn’t painting.
This shows that his life sketches are the most important thing when he develops his realistic looking animals. Van Gogh’s self-portrait was made to show his brother Theo that he was alright.
The blank canvas and the geisha show that he is going to paint relaxing subjects. He is going to take care of his mental health. The final portrait is just an example I gave of how to make a self-portrait with meaning.
I hope that you find this information useful. My name is Teresita Blanco, the Artsy Sister. Bye, bye and God bless.
