self-portrait

American  

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

noun

• self-portraits
  plural

1. a portrait of oneself done by oneself.

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self-portrait British  

noun

1. a portrait one draws or paints of oneself

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• self-portraits
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of self-portrait

First recorded in 1830–40

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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

“It’s both a self-portrait and a mirror in which a singular perspective can reach out to so many.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 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

The exhibition contains a self-portrait in this larger format, but it doesn’t have the concentrated punch and mystery that the standard Polaroids—requiring the viewer to lean in and peer—have in abundance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 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

Yeah, it’s definitely time to try a self-portrait.

From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes

Or it could simply indicate that collectors feel safer splurging on a household-name artist like Rembrandt, a Renaissance man famed for his pensive, realistic self-portraits in earthen hues.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026

A brilliant final section of self-portraits, beginning with the artist as a fresh-faced 23-year-old, documents both her changing appearance and her evolving conceptions of what a painting could be.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 3, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025

In June 2016, the museum debuted its first special exhibition, “Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life,” which featured 120 self-portraits pulled from the Broad’s collection, the world’s largest holdings of Sherman’s photographic oeuvre.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2025

He makes more self-portraits, too, many of them.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman

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