Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889

Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait, 1889

Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait, c. 1630

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Self-Portrait, 1948

• When artists make self-portraits, they may be asking themselves a very basic but difficult question: Who am I?
• When authors write journals, diaries, letters, or autobiographies, they are also trying to find or provide answers to: Who am I?
• Do these artistic methods—art and writing—help people to understand themselves better? Why is that important?

		See what you can discover about these famous artists and yourself as you look carefully at their self-portraits and read from their letters and journals. You'll make your own self-portraits and do some journal, letter, and poetry writing to start you on some self-exploration. By the end of the activities, you'll compile your visual and written self-portraits into a self-portrait portfolio.

Background Bytes

Why do artists make self-portraits?

Since the Renaissance, artists have used self-portraits to answer the basic question, Who am I? A mirror or a photograph can tell a person what he or she looks like, but that outer image rarely reflects the whole self. Self-portraiture asks artists to think carefully about personality, character, mood, and physical appearance in order to make decisions about how to represent themselves.

For each self-portrait, the artist must ask: what expression, posture, clothing, setting, colors, texture, style, and material best conveys the real me?

Might the answers to these questions be different at any given time?

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1986

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1659

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937

Pablo Picasso, Self-Portrait, 1901/1902

Here are some practical reasons why artists make self-portraits:

• They get a model who is always available and works for free.
• Self-portraits are a good way for artists to practice representing different expressions and moods.
• Self-portraits advertise an artist's skill. A potential customer can compare the image in the self-portrait to the actual person and decide on the spot to hire the artist—or not!
• Self-portraits live on. They preserve memories and let the artist leave his or her image behind—a way of fulfilling the human quest for immortality.

Édouard Vuillard, Self-Portrait, Aged 21, 1889

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Self-Portrait as a Heel Part Two, 1982

Henri Matisse, Self-Portrait, 1937

Jacob Lawrence, Self-Portrait, 1977