Self Portrait, 1933

With a focused, earnest gaze, slightly turned away from the viewer in a three-quarter portrait, the painter and drawing artist Otto Dix (1891–1969) portrays himself as a pensive and skeptical observer of the world. Only the outer garment included in the bust portrait with a stand-up collar and a stitched, gathered breast part—presumably a painting smock—is suggestive of an artist’s self-portrait. Precisely rendered in silverpoint with sculptural hatched shading, the articulation of details such as strands of hair, facial features, and folds of clothing seems committed to maximum realism and is reminiscent of pictorial works of German early Renaissance. Dix proves to be a highly knowledgeable about art historical references. The background is only sketched out with loose, parallel lines of hatching. Next to the face, Dix placed his monogram in austere geometry, plus the year “1933”.

MH, 2021