Self-Portrait 1915

Mathilde Battenberg made this self-portrait with oil paint. It's got that ochre-y, fleshy palette. I wonder what it was like for her, staring into a mirror, trying to capture herself. The way the light hits her face, so subtle, it feels like she’s really searching. You can almost feel her hand moving, building up the paint, layer by layer. Look at the white of her coat, how it’s not just white but a whole range of off-whites and greys that give it depth and volume. And the palette she holds! It’s a world of colour right there, ready to be mixed and applied. Painting a self-portrait is an act of trying to grasp who you are, an ongoing exploration of your inner self. Mathilde is in conversation with all the artists who came before, using paint to ask those big, unanswerable questions. It’s a gesture of vulnerability and strength, all at once.