Self-Portrait

This self-portrait is one of several that Armand Guillaumin created as a young artist during the early 1870s. Around this time, he worked closely with Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne, experimenting alongside them with vivid layers of color. Here, Guillaumin juxtaposed dark, dull tones with bright blue and orange to create unexpected optical blends. He meets the viewer's gaze directly, suggesting his intense focus at a period when such experimentation was just beginning to coalesce into the Impressionist movement.