Self Portrait 1910

Boris Kustodiev made this self-portrait with oil on canvas. It looks like he’s really trying to figure something out. I can imagine him in the act of painting this, looking in the mirror, turning back to the canvas, adding a stroke, squinting, then back to the mirror. That blue and white striped wallpaper behind him is so striking! It’s like a flag, but it’s also domestic, like, “Hey, I’m just a guy in my house.” But the intensity of his gaze makes you think otherwise. His face is painted with small, deliberate strokes; a brown shadow under the nose, a dab of pink on the cheek. You can see he’s looking intently, trying to pin down his own likeness, but maybe also trying to understand something deeper about himself. Painters are always in conversation with each other, even across time. I bet Kustodiev was looking at some old masters while painting this! It’s about trying to figure out what it means to be an artist, a person, in the world.