Self-Portrait with Glasses
  • Max Slevogt
  • Landshut 1868 - 1932 Neukastel
  • Self-Portrait with Glasses, 1894
  • Watercolour over black and coloured chalk,
    on paper, mounted on cardboard
  • monogrammed and dated on the lower left: MS 94
  • 330 × 255 mm
Provenance:
Wilhelm Buller, Duisburg

After training under Wilhelm von Diez in Munich and studying in Paris and Italy, Slevogt began his career as an independent painter in Berlin in 1891. At this time he started to develop his own style from elements of Impressionism and to free himself from the heaviness of the Munich school. With the help of visionary gallery owners such as the Cassirers, Slevogt soon had his first tastes of success, particularly as a portrait painter.

In the drawing shown here, Slevogt thoroughly captured this moment in the life of a confident young artist. With thick strokes and layers of different coloured media, he lent his self-portrait drawing the qualities of a painting, engaging the viewer with a gaze that is at once demanding and inquisitive.

One year earlier, Slevogt made a comparable but much smaller study (Fig.1).