Autoportrait
Claude Monet·1917
Historical Context
Monet's Autoportrait is one of very few self-portraits he made — he was famously resistant to the genre, preferring external subjects to self-examination. The 1886 date places this in his Giverny period, after the move from Argenteuil in 1883, when he was establishing the garden that would preoccupy him for the remainder of his career. The existence of a self-portrait at this moment may reflect the influence of Renoir and Cézanne, who were more committed practitioners of the genre, or a specific occasion — possibly related to his emerging commercial success with Durand-Ruel — that made self-examination appropriate.
Technical Analysis
Monet constructs the self-portrait with a relatively direct, economic touch, applying his now fully developed broken colour technique to a subject requiring more sustained observation than a fleeting landscape. The face is modelled in warm and cool flesh tones with short, directional strokes rather than smooth blending.
