Omakuva 1932

Tyko Sallinen painted this self-portrait in oils, and it’s like catching him in a moment of contemplation. I imagine him working, brush in hand, circling back to the canvas, adding layers of color and texture. The background is a deep, churning blue, applied in broad strokes. Then there’s the brown of his jacket against the crisp white shirt and bow tie. But the way he's captured his own face, that's where you feel the real energy. You can almost feel his presence, the intensity of his gaze as he studies himself in the mirror. It makes me think about other artists, like Van Gogh, who also turned inward, using self-portraiture to explore something deeper about the self. Painting is this continuous back-and-forth, a dialogue between artists across time. Each brushstroke is a response, a question, a continuation of a conversation that never really ends.