Self-Portrait

• Max Oppenheimer (1885–1954)
• 1911
• Oil on canvas
• Leopold Museum, Vienna

Max Oppenheimer, an early Austrian Expressionist painter, represented himself in a frontal view with his hand raised. His averted, skeptical gaze and skeletal hand suggest a suffering artist. Oppenheimer captured the depths of personality with distorted forms and bold colors, and the sitter’s expressions and movements were emphasized for the extreme emotional quality. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Oskar Kokoschka and was an important contributor to the Austrian Expressionism.