self-portrait

American  

[self-pawr-trit, -treyt, -pohr-, self-] / ˌsɛlfˈpɔr trɪt, -treɪt, -ˈpoʊr-, ˈsɛlf- /

noun

self-portraits plural

1. a portrait of oneself done by oneself.

---

self-portrait British  

noun

1. a portrait one draws or paints of oneself

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• self-portraits
  plural

Etymology

Origin of self-portrait

First recorded in 1830–40

Explanation

If you draw a picture of yourself, it's a self-portrait. Vincent van Gogh was well-known for his many self-portraits, painting more than 40 of them over the course of a few years. Whenever an artist creates a portrait of herself, whatever medium she uses, the result is a self-portrait. A six year-old can draw a self-portrait in crayon, and a famous sculptor can sculpt one out of clay. In the mid-15th century, Early Renaissance painters were the first to focus on creating deliberate self-portraits; this was probably due partly to the fact that mirrors had just recently become affordable and fairly easy to find.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

self-portrait self-portraits

A 2012 self-portrait shows a startled, wan Mr. Hockney unhappily staring at the viewer as if we’ve just interrupted a rare moment of peace; it’s a radical departure from his usually cheery depictions of himself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

The final sections of the research consider whether modern descendants share physical similarities with Leonardo's famous self-portrait.

From Science Daily ● May 4, 2026

“I was 20 or 21 then. I’d had a psychotic episode and was taken to a public hospital in Massachusetts,” says Palm Springs-based artist Lisa McCord of the self-portrait she later staged.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2026

A self-portrait created during that time, which now hangs in the Tate Britain, so impressed her tutor Frederick Brown that he bought it and it hung in his home.

From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2026

According to contemporary sources, the severed head is a self-portrait, but although we may doubt the identification, this disturbing image communicates a tragic vision that was soon fulfilled.

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson

Last year, one of Kahlo’s self-portraits sold at auction in New York for $55 million — a record for a woman and a Latin American artist.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

A pair of self-portraits bookend “Fairfield Porter: What Everyone Knows.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

And at Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Kazakh artist Waldemar Zimbelmann offers viewers a slinky series of self-portraits in which the artist twists, spins and transforms himself in a series of highly textured guises.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 3, 2025

Think of these eccentric beards as Therrien’s self-portraits.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025

A group of guys coughed “Sandra” discreetly every time Frida’s self-portraits were projected onto the screen.

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali