Max Liebermann
Self-portrait
Description
Max Liebermann did not begin to engage with his own likeness until late in life and, apart from isolated early works, only produced self-portraits more frequently from 1902 onwards, when he was already 55 years old. In these, the established painter always presents himself in bourgeois propriety, wearing a suit and tie. Liebermann used his self-portraits less for self-expression than for the unsparing observation of his own physiognomy and the advancing process of ageing.