Self-Portrait in Mirror

In this physically and conceptually multilayered work, Eileen Cowin combined her likeness, as reflected in the mirror, with images of earlier artworks. In the first layer, printed on sheet film, Cowin peeks out from within a doorway, her camera just to the right of an oval mirror. Cowin’s face blends in and hovers close to a detail of the painting The Salutation of Beatrice by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art. Whether Cowin identified with Beatrice or Jane Morris (née Burden), Rossetti’s model for this painting, is left open to interpretation.