Self Portrait 1913

Jan Mankes made this quiet self-portrait using etching, a printmaking technique that requires the artist to draw into a metal plate with a needle. I like to imagine Mankes bent over this copper plate, carefully scratching at the surface, and how the acid would have bitten into those lines to create the image. The way he’s captured his own gaze, so direct and yet so gentle, makes me wonder what he was thinking. Was he contemplating his place in the world, his identity as an artist? The subtle shading gives such a fragile presence. Mankes only lived until he was 30. His work reminds me of other artists who worked closely with nature like Morandi, or Hammershoi, artists who found a world of possibility in small moments and things. The way the etched lines pick up subtle nuances in the tones of the face, just makes you think about the passing of time, and the process of looking. It’s like he’s whispering across time, inviting us into his world.