Art Home | ARTH Courses | ARTH 200 Assignments

Potential Topics for Paper 3

For your third paper, I want you to take an artist's self-portrait and examine how the artist has constructed his identity as an artist and his social position in the image. Below are some potential topics. You are welcome to select works that are not included in this list. You can do your paper as a comparison of two images, but make sure that your paper does not end up being two separate discussions tacked together into a single paper. You are expected to e-mail me your choice of topics.

You are welcome to research your paper, but make sure that your paper does not end up being a collection of bits of information you have gleaned from secondary sources. The focus of your paper should be on how in the chosen work(s) the artist(s) construct their identity as artists.

Deadlines:

Tuesday, April 29: E-mail me your choice of topics. I would encourage you to list multiple topics and I can advise you as to which is the most manageable.

Tuesday, May 6: We will workshop the drafts of your papers.

Thursday, May 8: Your third paper is due. The paper should be between 3-5 pages in length.

 

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1500 (or any of the other self-portraits)

Baccio Bandinelli, Self-Portrait, c. 1530 (see webpage)

Sofonisba Anguissola, Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola, c. 1550. ( or any of the other self-portraits included on the webpage dedicated to Sofonisba)

Titian, Self-Portrait, c. 1562.

Peter Paul Rubens, Rubens with his Wife Hélène Fourment and their Son Peter Paul, c. 1635, oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (or any other Rubens self-portrait).

Velazquez, Las Meninas (see webpage)

Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait, c. 1635 (see webpage)

 

Artemisia Gentilleschi, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (see webpage)

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, 1658, Frick Collection (or any of the other self-portraits)

Nicholas Poussin, Self-Portrait, 1650.

 

Watteau, Gersaint's Signboard, 1721.

Johann Zoffany, The Tribuna of the Uffizi, 1772-78 (see webpage)

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Self-Portrait, 1780, London, Royal Academy of Arts.

James Barry, Self-Portrait, 1803.

Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Self-Portrait with Her Daughter, Julie
c. 1789

Marie Victoire Lemoine, Interior of the Atelier of a Woman Painter (possibly Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun), 1796

Gericault, Portrait of a Young Man, c. 1818.

Gericault, Portrait of Delacroix, c. 1818.

Delacroix, Michelangelo in His Studio, c. 1850.

Casper David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Mists, 1817-18.

Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait, 1889.

Frida Kahlo, Two Fridas, 1939 (or any of the other self-portraits included on the webpage dedicated to her work)