Autoritratto

Giorgio de Chirico painted many self-portraits across his career, several of which are held in museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Kunst Museum Winterthur. Painted in 1950, the present work dates to de Chirco’s mature oeuvre, showcasing the gestural and expressive brushwork that characterises his late works. During this period, de Chirico riffed on the Old Masters, and the dark ground and dramatic lighting in Autoritratto echo that used by Rembrandt in his many self-portraits. Like the Dutch Golden Age master, de Chirico, too, has given himself a sombre yet steadfast gaze. As with so many artists’ self-portraits, de Chirico has depicted himself holding his palette, one brush at the ready. These tools both make explicit his profession and were used to further his own mythology.
De Chirico’s Autoritratto is dedicated to the actress Merle Oberon and her husband, the businessman, Bruno Pagliai. Pagliai lived in Mexico City when he acquired this self-portrait as well as many other paintings by de Chirico, who was a close friend of the couple.