David Bomberg

Self-Portrait

1932

Not on display

Artist: David Bomberg 1890–1957
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 606 × 511 mm
frame: 652 × 559 × 57 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented in memory of the artist by Mr and Mrs J. Newmark through the Contemporary Art Society 1981
Reference: T03265

Display caption

This is one of a series of self-portraits that Bomberg painted in the 1930s, at his home in Fordwych Road, London. This was a particularly difficult time for the artist who was striving for a footing in the art world.

The portraits were all made using a large mirror in which the artist scrutinised his features from various angles. In his honest scrutiny of himself as a balding introverted character, Bomberg’s work of this period recalls Rembrandt’s great series of searching self-portraits, made three hundred years earlier.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

T03265 SELF-PORTRAIT 1932

On reverse: three standing figures, oil
Inscribed ‘Bomberg 32’ top right
Oil on board, 23 3/4 × 20 (60.5 × 51)
Presented in memory of David Bomberg by Mr and Mrs J. Newmark through the CAS 1981
Prov: Mrs Lilian Bomberg

One of a large number of self-portraits painted at 10 Fordwych Road, where Bomberg had moved in 1929. The painting on the reverse is unfinished and indistinct, but shows three standing figures facing to the right, the centre one possibly a female nude, and is coloured predominantly red.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984