Self-portrait as a boy

'Self-Portrait as a Boy' of 1845 is Feuerbach's earliest known self-portrait, painted when he was approximately fifteen years old and studying at the Düsseldorf Academy under Wilhelm von Schadow. The work provides evidence of his precocious technical ability and of the academic foundations laid at Düsseldorf, then the most prestigious art school in the German-speaking world. Self-portraiture at such a young age indicates both personal seriousness and the academic convention — students were routinely set self-portrait exercises as tests of observational and technical skill. The painting reveals a boy with an already intense, self-questioning gaze, a quality that persisted throughout Feuerbach's many mature self-portraits. The work is held at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, providing a valuable bookend to the institution's collection of his later work. Coming from the family of the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, Anselm was steeped in intellectual seriousness from childhood, and this early self-study reflects a precocious artistic self-awareness.

The academic format — bust length, three-quarter turn, dark neutral ground — follows the Düsseldorf school convention for student self-portraits. Despite the painter's young age, the modelling of the facial planes is confident and three-dimensional, with careful observation of light gradations across the cheeks and forehead. The execution is tighter and more tentative than his mature work but shows clear promise.