Self-Portrait
plate etched 1812–14
Medium
Etching on machine-made wove paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 12 7/8 × 9 1/2 in. (32.7 × 24.2 cm) Plate: 3 5/8 × 3 1/4 in. (9.2 × 8.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, PECO Foundation Gift, 2023
Accession Number
2023.83
Tags
About this artwork
This intimate self-portrait shows Dutch painter and printmaker Pieter Christoffel Wonder in the act of drawing or etching his own likeness, capturing himself at age 32. Etched on machine-made wove paper with a plate size of 9.2 × 8.2 cm, the work is traditionally dated 1814 though inscriptions on some impressions suggest it may actually date to 1812. Light floods in from the left, illuminating Wonder's hand and one side of his face in a compositional arrangement reminiscent of Rembrandt van Rijn...