Room 29
Reframing Women and Self-portraiture
The way we present ourselves is a deliberate and complex act with which women artists have grappled for many centuries. Self-portraiture, explored across different media – drawing, painting and photography – emerges as a place where identity can be freely analysed and questioned. By choosing to represent themselves looking out at us, women have countered the idea of a passive feminine sensibility. Often, their self-portraits disrupt past and contemporary representations of women made by male artists, for the pleasure of other men. This display takes gender as a starting point, however some of the artists have challenged the conventional expectations of womanhood, adopting an androgynous or masculine stance. At a time when ‘selfies’ have become ubiquitous, modern and contemporary self-portraiture takes on a new significance, inviting us to consider how identity can be performed through image-making.
Maeve Gilmore ('Self-Portrait with Charcoal')
by Maeve Gilmore
oil on canvas, circa 1958
On display in Room 29 on Floor 1 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 7138
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- Buy as a greetings card
- Use this image
- Recent acquisition
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky ('Self-portrait in Black')
by Marie-Louise von Motesiczky
oil on canvas, 1959
On display in Room 29 on Floor 1 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 7023
by Milein Cosman
oil on board, 1960s
On display in Room 29 on Floor 1 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 7140
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- Buy a print
- Buy as a greetings card
- Use this image
- Recent acquisition
![Everlyn Nicodemus ('Självporträtt, Åkersberga' [Self-portrait, Akersberga]), by Everlyn Nicodemus - NPG 7130](https://collectionimages.npg.org.uk/std/mw304573/Everlyn-Nicodemus-Sjlvportrtt-kersberga-Self-portrait-Akersberga.jpg)
Everlyn Nicodemus ('Självporträtt, Åkersberga' [Self-portrait, Akersberga])
by Everlyn Nicodemus
oil on canvas, 1982
On display in Room 29 on Floor 1 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 7130
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- Use this image
- Recent acquisition
'Reaching Heights and Aphrodisiacs Being Socially Constructed'
by Chila Kumari Singh Burman
etching and aquatint, 1988
On display in Room 29 on Floor 1 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 7131
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- Use this image
- Recent acquisition
Sarah Lucas ('Self-Portrait with Fried Eggs')
by Sarah Lucas
Iris print, 1996
On display in Room 29 on Floor 1 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG P884(5)