Self Portrait: Reflection

Freud’s self-portraits frequently use the word 'reflection’ in their title – a word that references his tool, the mirror he uses to help depict himself as subject and the act of depicting himself on the picture plane. As with his works on canvas from the same period, Lucien Freud’s Self Portrait: Reflection is an unflinching, unidealized depiction of the sitter, no less critical when he is focusing on himself. Arguably the present work, his only etched self-portrait, is his most sombre in character and leans towards the morbid. His head with hollow, hooded eyes and solemn expression appears to half emerge from the gloom of the densely-etched background, more akin to a death mask rather than the face of a living man. However through the clever application of deep, sweeping lines down his neck the eye of the viewer is drawn to his strong, broad shoulders, confidently uncovered. Aware of his own ageing process but not overwhelmed by it, he stares stony faced into the void.

Unlike his previous etchings, it is much darker in composition. This is in part due to the obsessively complex layering of the etched lines but is also down to the skill and techniques used by his long-time printer and collaborator Marc Balakjian at Studio Prints, London. Through judicious use of stiff ink and the selective wiping of it from the surface, Balakjian created the mottled tonal effect that can be seen in the unetched areas of the shoulders and face. This work highlights the importance of this collaboration; whilst the artist is the creative driving force, often he would have to rely on the printer to bring his vision to reality, which here is achieved with a staggering, almost haunting effect.