Self-Portrait

William Bailey American

Not on view

Regarded for his long tenure as a professor of art at Yale University, Bailey is known primarily as a painter of finely rendered and hyper-illusionistic, but fictional, still lifes. Thus, this self-portrait is quite anomalous in his oeuvre. Bailey shows himself bearded and wearing a blue jacket, as he returns the viewer’s gaze plainly against a warm, light-brown ground. The palette is generally muted, reminiscent of Picasso’s Rose and Blue Periods, which imbues the image with a contemplative quietude.

Self-Portrait, William Bailey (American, Council Bluffs, Iowa 1930–2020 Branford, Connecticut), Opaque watercolor on paper

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