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

He would sit by the lake watching the sunset, and one stormy evening - while eating takeaway Pad Thai - decided it would make a "funny, sad" self-portrait.

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 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

But yeah, to me it’s kind of a self-portrait.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025

The Luke Hunter he described was, like, a million shades away from any self-portrait I might have painted.

From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx

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

To create one of his characters, “the last lost boy,” Cardoza took self-portraits wearing a three-faced mask and a tattered brown jacket.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 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

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

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