Autorretrato 1924

Carmen Osés Hidalgo created this self-portrait in 1924, I imagine with a stick of charcoal and a few touches of coloured pencil. There’s something so immediate about the way the image is built up, bit by bit, one small stroke at a time. I bet Carmen was really looking closely at herself in the mirror, trying to capture not just her likeness but something deeper, something about her inner life. I can see her trying to find her likeness, a tentative process of drawing a line and then maybe rubbing it out and then trying again. The charcoal feels so delicate and fragile, like a whisper on the page. And then those little pops of red on the lips, like a secret being revealed. It reminds me a little of Paula Modersohn-Becker’s self-portraits, that same sense of intimacy and vulnerability. All of us artists, wrestling with the same questions, trying to make sense of ourselves and the world around us through paint and charcoal. It’s like one big conversation, stretching across time and space.