Self-Portrait in Profile
c.1986/1995
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
black felt-tip pen with cut-paper addition in spiral-bound sketchbook
Dimensions
sheet: 35.56 × 27.94 cm (14 × 11 in.) book: 35.56 × 27.94 × 1.27 cm (14 × 11 × 1/2 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation
Accession Number
2016.143.35.14
Art Historical Context
Saul Steinberg's *Self-Portrait in Profile (c. 1986/1995) captures the artist's keen wit and masterful line work in an intimate sketchbook format. Created late in Steinberg's career—he lived from 1914 to 1999—this drawing features a profile view rendered in bold black felt-tip pen, by a cut-paper addition for added texture and depth. Housed in a spiral-bound sketchbook measuring 14 × 11 × ½ inches, it invites viewers into the spontaneous, private realm of the artist's creative process. Steinberg, a Romanian-born American illustrator famed for his *New Yorker* covers and satirical drawings, bl...
About the Artist
Saul Steinberg
Saul Steinberg, born in 1914 in Râmnicu Sărat, Romania, to a family of Russian Jewish descent, navigated a peripatetic early career shaped by geopolitical upheaval and intellectual curiosity. After a brief stint at the University of Bucharest, he enrolled in 1933 at the Polytechnic University of Milan, earning a degree in architecture in 1940. There, he honed his graphic skills contributing satiri...