Self-Portrait 1920

Ludvig Karsten made this self-portrait with oil on canvas. It looks like he really went at it, smearing and layering color to figure himself out! The dominant greens and yellows evoke a kind of outdoor, garden setting, yet it's really the strokes that grab me—quick, gestural marks that build up the form but also dissolve it. You can see the way Karsten's used a heavy hand with the brush. It makes me think about the physicality of painting: the push and pull, the struggle to capture something fleeting. I imagine Karsten standing there, brush in hand, intensely focused, trying to pin down his own image. Was he questioning his identity, grappling with his inner self? Maybe he was thinking about other self-portraits, how Rembrandt did it, or Van Gogh? I bet they were on his mind, urging him on! These artists were all in conversation, egging each other on, across time!