Roderic O'Conor
, Irish, 1860-1940
Title
Self-PortraitDate1903
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
55 x 46 cm
Signedupper left: R.O'C'03
Credit LineBequeathed, Mr W. Wallace Anderson, 1929
Object numberNGI.922
Exhibition HistoryThe English Friends of Paul Gauguin, Anthony d'Offay, London, 1966Aspects of Irish Art, a Loan Exhibition; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 27 January - 3 March 1974; Toledo Museum of Arts, Toledo, Ohio, 17 March - 14 April 1974; St Louis Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri, 3 May - 9 June 1974
Roderic O'Conor, Barbican Art Gallery, London, 12 September - 3 November 1985; Ulster Museum, Belfast, 15 November 1985 - 18 January 1986; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 30 January - 8 March 1986; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 14 March - 10 May 1986
The Artist's Century, Royal Hibernian Academy, Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, 10 February - 19 March 2000
Label TextThough painted when the artist was already in his early forties, this is the earliest known self-portrait by O’Conor (he produced several more, later in life, by which time his hair and moustache had turned greyish-white). He has been described as looking distinctly Gallic in this work, but makes no specific reference to his occupation. Indeed, the work tallies with a description of O’Conor by Clive Bell around 1900: ‘a swarthy man, with a black moustache, greying when I met him, tallish and sturdy. He carried a stick and there was nothing Bohemian about his appearance’.