Portrait of the artist

Armand Guillaumin was among the original Impressionist group and participated in all but one of the eight Impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886, yet he remained outside the core social circle of Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro in part because he continued working as a civil servant until winning the lottery in 1891 freed him to paint full time. His self-portrait is one of several he produced across his career, a genre that allowed him to experiment with the intense, unmixed colour — especially the vivid reds and oranges — that distinguished his palette from his contemporaries and anticipated the Fauves.

Guillaumin's self-portrait is built with his characteristic broad, short strokes of unmixed colour — the flesh constructed from juxtaposed passages of red, orange, and green rather than blended skin tones. The background is handled loosely, allowing the face to read as the primary colour statement against a more subdued surround.