Self-portrait with Cigar 1914

Rik Wouters painted this self-portrait with cigar and hat with oil on canvas. Just imagine how the painting came into being—shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition, a conversation between the artist and himself in the mirror. I feel a strange sense of kinship with Rik, staring at himself, trying to get it right. What was he thinking when he made it? The brushwork is confident, especially the thick daubs of color in the background. The colors aren’t realistic, but emotional. He captures himself not as he is, but as he feels. That cigar hanging out of his mouth is really saying something—the embodiment of the artist as cool, as contemplative, as someone working through a problem. And he did that with paint. He painted with such bravery. It’s as if he said, "I'm going to try it, to see if I can do it". And so we see him, and, in turn, maybe he helps us see ourselves.