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

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

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

“Cat’s Eye” shares a title with one of Risley’s paintings, which the character describes as “a self-portrait, of sorts.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026

Therrien’s exploratory, artistic bird-flipping isn’t parody, like German artist Anselm Kiefer’s prickly self-portrait photographs raising a Hitler salute in front of ruined landscapes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025

He painted a self-portrait, too, to match, both very small.

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

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025

The MFA assembled 14 of these, contextualized by self-portraits, Japanese prints, works by artists Van Gogh admired, and paintings by Paul Gauguin, who joined his friend in the south toward the end of 1888.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025

Collectors who can still find a few of her works already in global circulation tend to pay a premium for Kahlo’s self-portraits.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

At some point she decided to study painting, and spent 60 years making portraits, self-portraits and still lifes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2025

Cheap-framed sketches, ranging from really good to great, all pencil, mostly people, lots of self-portraits, snippets of her trying to grin her way through the everyday.

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin