the idea: make a portrait of yourself making something

I have always had this love of artists who make paintings of themselves/others painting or what in the art history world we would say, paintings of artists at work.

One of my favorites, which I see every time I teach about the Daughter’s of Edward Darley Boit during an Artful Adventures tour at the MFA, is the Artist in His Studio.  It’s a painting made by John Singer Sargent of his friend Ambrogio Raffele.  That gallery is full of large scale, beautiful paintings, but this small piece is always the one I go to.

There’s just something so wonderful about a painting celebrating the act of painting.  My friend Simone and I have often told each other that we should make portraits of each other painting each other’s portraits.  Very meta, I know.  Someday it may yet happen, although since I’m an abstract artist and she draws beautiful portraits I think it may be a bit unfair.

My idea, and this small obsession I have with paintings of artists at work, came back to me today because a friend of mine, Pearl Albino, posted a photograph of Lavinia Fontana’s painting of herself playing piano on my Facebook.  “At Old Master previews at Christie’s, saw this Lavinia Fontana self-portrait at the keyboard and thought of you!” she wrote.

a.) I absolutely adore when people send me something that reminded them of me.  Whether it’s art, a book, an article, a piece of music, or a new place that I should go look at.  This actually happens fairly often, and I love it every time.

b.) I studied this painting in undergrad and it was one of many that I added to my mental list of artists at work.  Another two that I love are by Abelaide Labille-Gerard and Artemisia Gentileschi, both of whom I always appreciate even when they aren’t painting a subject that I love.

      

I won’t get into the art history behind these paintings, although it’s fantastically interesting and you should ask me about it sometime, but I will say that someday I will make a painting of myself painting so that I can join this wonderful tradition.