Self-Portrait at Easel 

This self-portrait by Samuel Mutzner captures the artist at his easel, seemingly frozen in the act of creation. The extended arm, holding a brush like a divining rod, serves as a potent symbol of artistic action. Consider the 'artist's hand' as it appears across art history. Think of the hand of God reaching out to Adam in Michelangelo's fresco. Here, Mutzner's hand, actively engaged in the act of painting, becomes a conduit through which ideas are given form. There is a psychological tension in the hand’s gesture, caught in a dynamic state between thought and execution. This reaching arm also echoes the creative impulse, recurring in various forms throughout art history. This motif—the hand, reaching, creating—is not merely a representation of physical action. It symbolizes the eternal human striving to articulate the internal landscape.