Self-portrait

P.S. Krøyer's 1888 self-portrait, painted in Stavanger during a Norwegian stay, is one of several self-examinations through which the artist monitored his own appearance and artistic development. Krøyer was highly self-aware as an artist and a public figure — the most celebrated painter in Denmark, married to the painter Marie Triepcke, and a central figure in the Skagen colony. This self-portrait shows him at the height of his powers, before the mental illness that would eventually incapacitate him in the early twentieth century.

Krøyer renders himself with the same searching directness he brought to his portraits of others, building the face through careful tonal observation without flattery. His trademark confident bearing comes through in the pose, and the handling of the light on his face demonstrates the mastery of natural illumination effects that made him Denmark's most sought-after portraitist.