Essay : who am I?

Who am I?

We have done a large project about self portraits, with the main question: who am I? This is the final assignment, a summarizing essay of all the things we have learned. In this essay is information about self-portrait painters, their style, their paintings and their lives. Throughout this essay you can find the answer to the question: why do artists really make self portraits?




Artists show who they are in their paintings. They can make a lot of different self-portraits. The different kinds of portraits show different moods, styles and expressions. They can be serious, happy or depressed.
A very famous self-portrait artist is Vincent van Gogh, who painted 36 self-portraits.

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait as an Artist, 1888
He lived in southern France in the 19th century, many people just know that he cut
of his ear. He always used fairly thick brushstrokes in his paintings.
In this painting, he painted himself as a very good artist. He got inspiration from other paintings, he used the same props that Rembrandt used in his paintings. In this painting he comes across as a serious and very talented artist. He uses broad brushstrokes, which looks very serious. That is because he had a really hard life. He used different backgrounds from different expressions, like dark blue for a calm expression.
His most distinctive characteristics are the use of complementary colours and his use of brushstrokes.

Paul Gauguin has also made many self-portraits. He expressed himself in many different ways. He wanted to focus on painting without being disturbed. That is why he isolated himself from everyone else. He was a very complicated person. He wanted to make the greatest paintings. For that he had to be all by himself, put his heart and soul in his work. He uses many symbols in his work: a halo for god and saintliness, an apple for the story of Adam and eve, a snake for temptation and knowledge and red for the fires of hell. He uses dark colours for tired and serious expressions. When the colours are light, he looks awake and happy.

A female self-portrait artist is Judith Leyster. A Dutch woman from Haarlem. She learned some things from Frans Hals. Later she had her own studio where she gave classes. She was a skilled, self-confident, hardworking and creative woman.

An artist everyone knows is Pablo Ruiz Picasso. He was very good at painting and making sculptures. After his death he got his own museum full of his own art.




Artists make self portraits for many different reasons. They show their personality, their feelings and of course their skills. A big advantage is that the model, themselves, is always available and costs nothing. It also means publicity, because the people can compare the work to the artists. The portraits also live on, the image of them is saved for a very long time. People will know them, and they will be even more famous after their death. Everyone will know who they are.



505 words