Zelfportret met spiegel 1908

Léon Spilliaert made this haunting self-portrait with charcoal and crayon on paper. He stares out at us from a darkened domestic interior, framed by a mirror. Spilliaert was a key figure in the Belgian Symbolist movement at the turn of the century, a time when artists sought to express inner psychological states rather than depict the external world realistically. He created this work against a backdrop of social and political tension in Belgium, as the country grappled with issues of industrialization, class conflict, and cultural identity. Spilliaert's choice of the mirror motif speaks to the Symbolist preoccupation with doubling, reflection, and the search for the self. He presents himself as a spectral figure caught between reality and illusion. A historian might examine other mirror paintings to understand this visual code. We might also research the psychiatric literature of the period, for this image certainly evokes the anxiety and alienation that many felt in a rapidly changing world. Art is a powerful mirror, reflecting not only the artist's image, but also the complex forces of society itself.