Portrait of Renoir

Frederic Bazille, Portrait of Renoir, 1867

My goodness, who knew that Renoir was so handsome?

Marie Spartali Stillman - Self-Portrait

Marie Spartali Stillman, Self-Portrait, 1871

Portrait of Michelangelo

Portrait of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra

I've seen so many pieces of art by Michelangelo but never thought about what he himself looked like.

Worth a Thousand Words: Ghiberti

Lorenzo Ghiberti on the Paradise Gate ot the Baptisterio (Florence) self portrait

Doesn't he look so modern? Just like someone you might run into today.

Alphonse Mucha, Self Portrait

Alphonse Mucha, Self Portrait
via WikiPaintings

I love the expression on Mucha's face.

I also love the fact that we know him for work that is very different than the portrait style above. As you can see below. If we hear Alphonse Mucha, it is likely that a style doesn't come to mind for most people like me. One look though, and we know his style very well.

Van Gogh: Self Portrait on the Way to Work

Vincent van Gogh, The Painter on the Road to Tarascon, 1888,
reportedly destroyed during World War II

Arkady Rylov: Self-Portrait (with a squirrel!)

Arkady Rylov (1870–1939), Self-Portrait

Paul Claude-Michel Carpentier: Self-Portrait with Family in the Artist’s Studio

Self-Portrait with Family in the Artist’s Studio, Paul Claude-Michel Carpentier
Dallas Museum of Art

I look for this painting whenever I visit the DMA. This loving portrait shows a man's love of his family, especially in that his wife isn't particularly beautiful but she has a warm, loving expression.

Claude Monet: Self-Portrait with a Beret

Self-Portrait with a Beret, Claude Monet, 1886
via Wikipaintings

And here I thought I liked his nature paintings best. I like the rather startled gaze. Or perhaps it's a gaze of fierce intensity. Odd how I can't decide which it is. I'd never have thought of them being interchangeable until this moment.

Anthony van Dyck: Self Portrait with a Sunflower

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Self Portrait With a Sunflower, Private collection

I always enjoy seeing the personal touches that artists put into self-portraits, especially in the more flamboyant pieces, such as the one above.

Which. I. Love.

Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux: Self-portrait with a Harp

Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux (1761–1802, Self-portrait with a Harp
Source. Seen first at Lines and Colors.

Self Portrait - Reubens Santoro

Self Portrait, Reubens Santoro

 I love artists' self portraits. Selfies are now commonplace but just recently they were thought of as new, exciting, indulgent, and more. But we can see that they are as old as the urge to create art.

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait with Daughter Julie

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait with Daughter Julie

During the 40 year period from 1778 to 1818 Vigée Le Brun painted 37 self portraits. 17 were originals and 20 were copies. We've got a copy of one of those self-portraits on the wall of our bedroom. Seeing it at The Kimbell Museum, she struck me as so sweet that I wanted one to take home. It never occurred to me that there would be more than one. I find this portrait with her daughter to be equally as sweet.

Selfie: Leonardo da Vinci

Self-portrait in red chalk - Leonardo da Vinci
via WikiPaintings

I was looking at all the beautiful art da Vinci created and then came upon this self-portrait which I found captivating.

He did a lot of sketches, many of which I also liked, but for some reason none of them captured my imagination the way this one did. I think it is the combination of the serious face, almost grim, with the softness of beard and drawing medium.

Selfie: Marc Chagall

Self-Portrait, Marc Chagall, 1914 (from Olga's Art Gallery)

Selfie: Albrecht Durer

Self Portrait at Twenty-Eight, Albrecht Durer

It is the last of his three painted self-portraits. Art historians consider it the most personal, iconic and complex of his self-portraits.[1] The self-portrait is most remarkable because of its resemblance to many earlier representations of Christ. Art historians note the similarities with the conventions of religious painting, including its symmetry, dark tones and the manner in which the artist directly confronts the viewer and raises his hands to the middle of his chest as if in the act of blessing.

Read more at the Wikipedia page. I love Durer's paintings but never realized that he himself was so good looking. I think I might actually prefer this self-portrait from when he was twenty-six. The outfit is great, am I right?

Self Portrait at Twenty-Six, Albrecht Durer

Selfie and Noir: Chandler and Rembrandt

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait with Two Circles

They had Rembrandt on the calendar that year, a rather smeary self-portrait due to imperfectly registered color plate. It showed him holding a smeared palette with a dirty thumb and wearing a tam-o’-shanter which wasn’t any too clean either. His other hand held a brush poised in the air, as if he might be going to do a little work after a while, if somebody made a down payment. His face was aging, saggy, full of the disgust of life and the thickening effects of liquor. But it had a hard cheerfulness that I liked, and the eyes were as bright as drops of dew.

Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely

I don't know if this is the portrait Philip Marlowe was looking at because I discovered that Rembrandt did over a hundred self-portraits in his lifetime. But this expression is the one that came to mind when I read that paragraph. "Hard cheerfulness" is the perfect description.

Selfie: At the Dressing Table

Zinaida Serebriakova (1884–1967)
At the Dressing-Table (the self-portrait).

I'd never heard of Zinaida Serebriakova until Charley Parker at Lines and Colors included her charming self portrait in his continuing series of old fashioned "selfies." I love this charming self portrait with her sweet yet knowing expression, the clutter of her dressing table, and the way the candlesticks blend into the picture "frame."

Worth a Thousand Words: Bernini Self-Portrait

Self Portrait as a Young Man, Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Selfie — painter James Tissot

Self Portrait, James Tissot

 I remember when it broke on me like a lightning bolt that we weren't the first people to think of selfies. Painters have been doing them for some time. I love this one of one of my favorites, James Tissot. He looks very jaunty.