Zelfportret c. 1785 - 1833

This self-portrait was sketched by Jean Bernard in the Netherlands, at a time of great political change. Bernard was a deaf artist working in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Looking at the formal qualities of the sketch, we might ask: what did it mean for a deaf artist to represent himself in this period, when new institutions for deaf education were starting to emerge? It’s worth considering the cultural associations of portraiture and the institution of the art academy. If we analyze these, we might begin to ask questions about the place of deaf artists in wider society. How might they participate in the public sphere, for example? Historical sources such as letters, pamphlets, and school records can shed light on these questions. The meaning of art is always contingent on these social and institutional contexts.