Given that yesterday was what would have been famous portraitist (and self-portraitist) Andy Warhol‘s 83 birthday, we’ve been thinking a little bit about the long history of self-portraiture. Many artists’ first subjects are themselves, which makes some sense, considering the proximity and availability of one’s own face. Often artists’ self portraits differ greatly from the rest of their work, but some trade almost exclusively in the form. Like anything else, the mediums and methods vary widely, but all are fascinating in that they attempt to show an inner part of the artist more directly than any representation of an outside subject could. With that in mind, click through for our very incomplete (how could it not be?) visual history of self-portraiture, and let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorite pieces in the comments!
Jan van Eyck, 1433 (the disputed earliest surviving panel self-portrait)
Albrecht Dürer, 1500
Leonardo da Vinci, 1515
Peter Paul Rubens, 1623
Rembrandt, 1658
Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1782
Gustave Courbet, 1844-1845
Vincent Van Gogh, 1889
Henri Matisse, 1906
Egon Schiele, 1910
Tamara de Lempicka, 1925
Frida Kahlo, 1940
Diane Arbus, 1945
Bruce Nauman, 1966-1967
Chuck Close, 1967-1968
Francis Bacon, 1971
Cindy Sherman, 1978 (part of her Untitled Film Stills series)
Jeff Wall, 1979
Robert Mapplethorpe, 1980
Lucien Freud, 1981
Nan Goldin, 1984
Andy Warhol, 1986
Sarah Lucas, 1996
Ron Mueck, 2001-2002
Takashi Murakami, 2009
