Self-Portrait with Five Muses
Medium
oil on paper mounted to board
Dimensions
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Classification
Painting
Department
American Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Delia E. Holden Fund
Accession Number
2012.30
Tags
About this artwork
Lifelong Chagrin Falls resident Church is considered one of the great self-taught artists of 19th-century America. A painter, sculptor, and musician by passion, he offered his appearance and enthusiasms in this highly imaginative self-portrait, surrounding himself with a squadron of miniature winged muses. These figures represent not only the traditional arts of painting, sculpture, and music, but also Church's profession of blacksmithing (identified as a crowned figure holding a hammer and anvi...