Autorretrato
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Teodoro Vidal Collection
Accession Number
1996.91.12
Tags
painterbustself-portraitPuerto Rican
About this artwork
A freed slave at the time he made this self-portrait, PÃo Casimiro Bacener depicts himself as a distinguished gentleman. His worried expression, however, belies his confident pose. This portrait was probably painted as an assignment for the Public School of Drawing in San Juan. It is painted over another image, revealed through X-ray photography, of a child or an angel with hands clasped in prayer.