Zelfportret met zwarte hoed en bril 1917

This is a self-portrait made with pastel on paper by Thérèse Schwartze, who was working in the Netherlands in 1917. Look at the soft strokes and the muted palette! Imagine Schwartze standing before a mirror, dabbing and blending those powdery pastels, trying to capture not just her likeness, but something of her inner self. There’s a real sense of immediacy here, a fleeting moment caught in a flurry of marks. The way she’s rendered the light on her face, those subtle gradations of tone, it’s like she’s searching for something, questioning her own identity. And that hat, perched jauntily on her head, adds a touch of bohemian flair, don’t you think? It's like she's in conversation with other great self-portraitists like Rembrandt or Van Gogh, each grappling with the same questions of selfhood and representation. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, about the endless possibilities of painting, and how artists continue to inspire and challenge one another across time?