Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919)
Autoportrait (Self-Portrait)
1899
Oil on canvas, 41.4 x 33.7 cm
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
Renoir presents himself in this self-portrait as a mature and confident man. He was in his late fifties and well-established as an artist; the flowered wallpaper and his bourgeois clothes allude to a comfortable living. His health, on other hand, was poor, and the intensity of his gaze suggests an incisive investigation of the features of his face in a mirror. Renoir never exhibited this painting, and it remained in his studio until his death twenty years later. (Clark)