Self-Portrait 17th-18th century

Curator: Today we're looking at Jonathan Richardson Sr.'s "Self-Portrait," held at the Harvard Art Museums. It presents a direct gaze in monochrome. Editor: The immediate impression is the raw, almost unfinished quality of the sketch. The hatching gives it a very tangible feel. Curator: Indeed. The emphasis on line and tone over pure representation is quite striking, disrupting notions of conventional portraiture. It evokes a certain self-awareness, a constructed identity. Editor: I see the work's construction as deliberate—the layered strokes, the building up of the image through physical mark-making. How much was this about self-fashioning through a specific set of techniques? Curator: Precisely. The formal economy of the sketch enhances the emotional impact. It lays bare the artistic process. Editor: This piece encourages a deeper engagement with art-making itself, doesn't it? Curator: It does. Richardson gives us not just a likeness, but an act of creation. Editor: Leaving us to contemplate the materials, the labor, and the artist's own presence in the making.