Artwork
Self Portrait
Self Portrait is an oil painting by Émile Bernard. It dates from 1899 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Overview
Émile Bernard’s *Self Portrait* (1899) is an oil painting that presents the artist’s own likeness. Executed in the late nineteenth century, the work belongs to the collection of the Rijksmuseum. It measures a modest size and depicts Bernard seated before a plain blue backdrop, his features rendered with a loose handling of paint.
Subject & Meaning
The canvas portrays a bearded man with dark hair, dressed in a brown coat, gazing directly at the viewer. A simple vase holding a single white blossom rests on a shelf behind him, suggesting a modest interior setting. The straightforward composition focuses attention on the sitter’s expression and the understated domestic details.
Technique & Style
Bernard applies paint in a textured manner, allowing brushstrokes to remain visible, especially across the face and collar.
Bernard applies paint in a textured manner, allowing brushstrokes to remain visible, especially across the face and collar. The surface shows areas of impasto where pigment is built up, creating a tactile quality. While the overall outline is clear, the handling departs from polished portraiture, reflecting the artist’s interest in bold contours and flat color fields associated with Cloisonnism and Synthetism.
History & Provenance
Created at the close of the 1890s, the portrait entered the Rijksmuseum’s holdings through acquisition in the twentieth century, though the exact path of ownership prior to that remains undocumented in public records. The painting bears Bernard’s signature in the upper left corner, though the inscription is faint and partially obscured by varnish.
Context
Bernard was a French painter linked to the post‑Impressionist movement, working alongside figures such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. During this period he explored decorative simplification and the use of strong outlines, a visual language that informs the compositional choices seen in this self‑portrait. The work exemplifies his transition from experimental group styles toward a more personal, introspective approach.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Émile Henri Bernard (French pronunciation: ; 28 April 1868 – 16 April 1941) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and writer, who had artistic friendships with Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Eugène Boch, and at a later time, Paul…
