Self-Portrait

After training and making his debut as a lithographer, the French artist Eugène Carrière opted for a painting career. His favourite subjects included family scenes and intimate portraits of artist friends, realised in a hazy, suggestive style. Carrière also produced around fifteen, usually small scale, self-portraits. Painted at the age of 38, the Ghent canvas is one of the artist’s…

After training and making his debut as a lithographer, the French artist Eugène Carrière opted for a painting career. His favourite subjects included family scenes and intimate portraits of artist friends, realised in a hazy, suggestive style. Carrière also produced around fifteen, usually small scale, self-portraits. Painted at the age of 38, the Ghent canvas is one of the artist’s earliest self-portraits. At that time he painted it, Carrière had already come to international prominence. The lively and direct gaze reflects the painter’s self-confidence, whilst he also appears to evoke the transience of time in the delicate image of his face. This air of intimacy and vulnerability is further enhanced by nervous brush strokes and fleeting lines.