Self-portrait

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Dimensions: 139.7 x 60.6 cm.
Location: The National Gallery of Art (Washington, the USA).

The self-portrait of the artist has the same style and colours as his portrait with his mother. To create the picture, Gorky applied an unusual technique, which he stopped using in the 1940s. The artist applied the paint in a thick layer on the canvas, and then, letting it dry well, completely scraped it off the canvas and perfected the volumes with a soft brush and liquid paints. Thanks to this, the paintings have a very smooth, slightly velvety surface, and the image itself is striking in its depth and pithiness. As for the main character of the painting, the artist depicted himself quite prosaically, in casual clothes with a dumb tired face, which attracts your attention with its gaze.