Self-Portrait by Horace Pippin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2011

Self-Portrait

Horace Pippin (American, West Chester, Pennsylvania 1888–1946 West Chester, Pennsylvania)

Date: 1944

Medium: Oil on canvas, adhered to cardboard

Dimensions: 8 1/2 x 6 1/2in. (21.6 x 16.5cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Bequest of Jane Kendall Gingrich, 1982

Accession Number: 1982.55.7

Description:

During World War I, Pippin, who had no formal art training, kept an illustrated journal of his military experiences. After he was discharged with a disabled right arm, he continued to draw as a form of physical therapy. By the 1920s he was producing larger, more colorful compositions on burned wood panels and canvas but at such a laborious rate that his total oeuvre over twenty years comprised only about 140 paintings. During the 1930s and 1940s, when interest increased in American folk art and its influence on modern American artists, especially those that were self-taught, Pippin's work gained recognition from important museums, galleries, and collectors. This self-portrait, painted two years before his death at age fifty-six, is one of only two he painted.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/2100...