Self-Portrait

Leopold Gottlieb probably painted this self-portrait in Paris, which he made his home in 1907. The period significantly broadened the painter’s experience – he had started a proto-expressionist group known as Grupa Pięciu in Kraków two years previously; in 1906 he had gone to Jerusalem and stayed there for several months, teaching painting at the newly established Bezalel School of Arts and committing Palestinian landscapes to canvas.

Rendered in a monochromatic palette of harmonious shades of pink, steel green and sand yellow, the depiction of the artist unites asceticism with monumentalism. In the foreground, lost in contemplation, is the sturdy figure of the artist, his shirt unbuttoned. Behind him, there is a sketchy flat landscape with tiny brownish-red human figures in the distance.

The composition in this painting holds associations with symbolic self-depictions of Jacek Malczewski, Gottlieb's teacher at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts. Unlike him, however, Gottlieb did not assume an extrovert pose for the painting, portraying himself as an artist-prophet and demiurge. On the contrary, he represented himself with his eyes closed, wearing a simple shirt and immersed in spiritual visions, meditating; as a result, his self-portrait has an aura of almost religious spirituality. Born into a Jewish family, Gottlieb derived spiritual inspiration from other religions as well – Christianity and Hinduism. The self-portrait was created at a time when the artist was deeply interested in the art of fresco and Christian themes. Indeed, the matte texture of the painting brings to mind the tempera technique used by the Old Masters.