Jan Mankes made many self-portraits in his life. He assigned great importance to self-portraits and portraits in general which is evident from a fragment of a letter from 1911: "Een portret kan groot zijn, grooter dan de oneindige lucht, grooter dan de heerlijkste buitendag, het portret toch kan het leven, de ziel der afgebeelde weergeven, de ziel die die schoonheid kan zien naar de mate zijner eigen grootheid." Mankes considered the painting of self-portraits as a way to look at himself in a critical manner and to sound his own inner self. In these portraits he often accentuated physical characteristics, like f.i. the stylization of his jaw.

Compare with an almost identical self-portrait from the same year, now in the Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem. See: H.F.Bruyel-Van der Palm, I.M.de Groot, J.de Groot a.o., Jan Mankes, Schilderijen, tekeningen en grafiek, Utrecht 1989, no.64, p.79(ill.).

See colour illustration