self-portrait
Americannoun
noun
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On one wall of the actor Michael Emerson’s Manhattan apartment hangs a large self portrait he drew about 40 years ago.
From New York Times • May 20, 2024
It might take a few tries, but you can time your self portrait to capture a plane flying low overhead at this stretch of park along the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport.
From Washington Post • Jan. 4, 2022
His collage, including a self portrait, was picked to hang in Mayor Tom Bradley’s office.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 1, 2017
High point: When Esquire magazine asked me to make a self portrait for their photography-themed issue.
From The Guardian • Jun. 1, 2017
Her first, the self portrait Bubbles, has sold 130,000 copies in hardcover and many times that figure in paperback since it came out a year ago.
From 100 New Yorkers of the 1970s by Millard, Max
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
