1940

Self-Portrait

American, 1891 - 1978

Edwin Dickinson purchased a home in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, in September 1939, and shortly afterwards built his own studio there. He had rented or borrowed studio space until that time, and this new sense of ownership triggered a burst of creative energy-between 1940 and 1943 the artist created six new self-portraits, this being the first from the group. A self-described "general painter in oil," Dickinson's work was grounded in recognizable subject matter, but also veered towards abstraction, as witnessed here by the flat planes of muted color behind the artist's head.