“Self Portrait”
For today, we have a self-portrait by a bright and passionate young artist.
“Self-Portrait” is an oil on cardboard painting from 1916 by the French artist, Jeanne Hébuterne. She created this portrait at 18 years old, the same year she started art school at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, France.
Though she is mostly remembered as the model and lover of artist Amedeo Modigliani, Hébuterne was an extremely talented painter in her own right. She was influenced by the Nabis and Fauvist artists, who focused on simpler color and forms, with a flatter perspective. Hébuterne tragically committed suicide at 21 years old, within two days after Modigliani’s death from tubercular meningitis.
In this painting, Hébuterne poses herself face down away from the viewer. Subtly, she painted her blue eyes staring directly at the viewer. Her hair is piled high on top of her head in a bright auburn hue. A blue beaded necklace adorns her neck, which is likely the same blue necklace featured in Modigliani’s painting, “Jeanne Hébuterne with Hat and Necklace”, from 1917. The background’s perspective is positioned with a high and dramatic horizon, with solid blue at the top of the canvas contrasted with decorative flowers on the rest of the canvas. Her skin is pale, with pink cheeks, and her nose is only suggested, not delineated. Her autograph is located in the upper left corner.
As she died so young, only about 25 paintings by Jeanne Hébuterne are known to survive to this day, many which are self-portraits. Her art was not seen by the public for decades after her death, as her heirs kept them private. In 2000, her work was finally seen by the public at an exhibition in Italy of Modigliani’s work.
“Self-Portrait” is currently in the collections of the Musée du Petit Palais located in Geneva, Switzerland. The museum closed permanently in 1998 after the death of the private owner, Oscar Ghez. The collections are sometimes displayed in exhibitions at other institutions.
For more on Jeanne Hébuterne, please visit her short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
