Cactus with Self-Portrait

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita may be best known as the teacher of the better known M.C. Escher, however, in his own right, Mesquita was one of the more significant and highly original artists working in turn-of-the-century Holland. He produced over 400 prints in addition to numerous drawings. The striking Self-Portrait with a Cactus is one of several self-portraits that he created during the course of his career in his trademark woodcut style comprising stylized forms in stark black and white. As he made this image, the artist must have been looking in a mirror, suggested by the dark frame that defines the page, a large cactus in bloom appears to hang from its upper edge. The angle from which he depicted himself accounts for the disparity in size between the artist's small head and the large looming cactus. He repeatedly worked on the block over eleven states, refining small details in the image as he worked.

De Mesquita was of Portuguese Jewish origin and he and his family were deported and murdered in Auschwitz. His student Escher wrote letters to ask for their release. He also saved works from the artist's studio after it had been ransacked by the Germans.