Self-portrait
1918
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate: 9 1/8 x 6 7/8 in. (23.2 x 17.5 cm); sheet: 11 1/2 x 9 in. (29.2 x 22.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Goodwin M. Breinin, 1987
Accession Number
1987.1186.3
Tags
About this artwork
This late self-portrait by Max Klinger reveals the German artist examining himself near the end of his long career. Created in 1918, the year of Klinger's death, this etching demonstrates the artist's continued engagement with printmaking, the medium that had established his international reputation decades earlier. Klinger was a major figure in German Symbolism, known for ambitious print cycles that combined technical virtuosity with complex allegorical content. His self-portraits, created peri...
About the Artist
Max Klinger · 1857–1920
Max Klinger, born on February 18, 1857, in Leipzig to a wealthy family, emerged as one of Germany's most innovative artists across painting, sculpture, printmaking, and graphics. Demonstrating early talent, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe in 1874 as a pupil of Karl Gussow, following his teacher to the Berlin Academy upon Gussow's appointment as director, and graduated in 1877 ...