Self-Portrait 1908

Leon Wyczółkowski made this self-portrait in oil, somewhere in Poland, looking intently at himself in the mirror, with an expression of serious concentration. The paint is brushed on with urgency, in strokes of brown, ochre, grey, and white, giving it a raw and immediate feel. You can see the artist building up the form, stroke by stroke, like he’s thinking through the painting process. I wonder if he stepped back and thought, what am I really trying to capture here? What does he want us to see? The eyes, framed by those glasses, really draw you in, don't they? You can see his gaze, so direct, as if he's trying to understand himself, his place in the world. Self-portraits are like that, aren’t they? They invite you to delve into a world of the painter’s making while being reminded of other artists, like Rembrandt, who also gazed intensely back at themselves. We are all influenced by the work of those who came before. We are all looking back while moving forward.