Nude Self-Portrait, 1908

The 25-year-old painter Richard Gerstl (1883–1908) presents himself completely nude in this painting. Standing up straight, he is extending his arm towards the canvas in the dark area to his right. His intense gaze is focused directly on the beholders. His style of painting is furious, heated and passionate. The background shows scrawled, turning brushstrokes; the whirl of color in the lower left part of the picture illustrates his internal unrest during the painting process. The painter dated the work on the front, giving the 12th September 1908 as date of creation. His separation from Mathilde Schönberg (1877–1923) had thrown Richard Gerstl into a deep existential crisis. The unsparing manner in which he depicts himself here was a radical act of self-exposure. Nude self-portraits were still an absolute taboo in 1908. In fact, this painting can be considered one of the first nude self-portraits in Central European art history. It is Gerstl’s first and only nude self-portrait – he committed suicide a little more than three weeks later.

AK, 2022