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Lot Essay
Having returned from Europe in April 1930, Bomberg resettled at his home in Fordwych Road, North London, and worked on a series of self-portraits and images of Lilian. Using a large mirror, Bomberg painted his reflection from different angles in this series. Dating from 1930, a year before The Red Hat (private collection), the present work, painted in a muted tonal scheme, shares the same formal characteristic of the artist looking out over his left shoulder engaging the viewer's attention.
Writing about this series of self-portraits William Lipke comments that they 'are detailed examinations of the artist's personality, reflecting the crises and accompanying moments of introspection which are characteristic of this period in Bomberg's art. They are wholly expressive of his more painterly approach to art, where the palette becomes more varied and subtle; the textures more rich and sensuous; the positions of the sitter more closely related to the emotional crises in the artist's life. Now the artist pictures himself proud and erect; now he is slightly stooped. Some of these stunning self-portraits show him looking back at the spectator; most show him to be comtemplatively gazing into the suggested 'infinite' space of the picture. In sum, there is no other twentieth century British artist who has so carefully scrutinized, in paint, his attitude towards himself and the world' (David Bomberg, London, 1967, p. 71).
Writing about this series of self-portraits William Lipke comments that they 'are detailed examinations of the artist's personality, reflecting the crises and accompanying moments of introspection which are characteristic of this period in Bomberg's art. They are wholly expressive of his more painterly approach to art, where the palette becomes more varied and subtle; the textures more rich and sensuous; the positions of the sitter more closely related to the emotional crises in the artist's life. Now the artist pictures himself proud and erect; now he is slightly stooped. Some of these stunning self-portraits show him looking back at the spectator; most show him to be comtemplatively gazing into the suggested 'infinite' space of the picture. In sum, there is no other twentieth century British artist who has so carefully scrutinized, in paint, his attitude towards himself and the world' (David Bomberg, London, 1967, p. 71).