Self-portrait 1782

Editor: This is Johann Friedrich August Tischbein's self-portrait from 1782, oil on canvas, currently at the Rijksmuseum. I’m struck by how direct his gaze is. It feels almost confrontational, yet…vulnerable? What’s your take on it? Curator: I'm interested in unpacking that feeling of confrontation. What power dynamics were at play when a man of Tischbein's status – as a court painter in the late 18th century – presented himself in this way? Was this vulnerability a carefully constructed pose, designed to subvert the rigid expectations of the aristocratic portraiture he usually produced, or was it reflecting the changing philosophical views toward the self? Editor: So, it's less about just seeing a portrait, and more about what he's trying to say about his position through this self-representation. But wasn’t self-portraiture pretty common for artists at that time? Curator: Absolutely. But we can still question what he's claiming by positioning himself in opposition to conventional portrayals. Consider the texture: there’s a cracking across the surface of the painting. Does that fragility invite reflections on social standing? Editor: Interesting…it’s like the cracks on the painting represent a kind of social and perhaps personal… fracture? Curator: Precisely! And this might not just be the perspective of the individual. Consider that 1782 is creeping ever closer to 1789 and the start of The French Revolution: an art revolution, as well, against court patronage and what had come before it. How does the painting reflect that social agitation? Editor: I guess I was only seeing the surface of this portrait—the very literal image of the man, instead of thinking of what that image represents, as related to both his time and to today. Thank you. Curator: Of course! It’s all about continuously engaging in dialogue between the artwork and its historical, social, and theoretical contexts.