SELF-PORTRAIT

Soyer, Raphael. SELF-PORTRAIT. Cole 3, Gettings 2. Etching, c.1917. One of a very few printed. Signed in pencil lower right. 4 1/16 x 3 inches (plate), 5 3/4 x 4 3/8 inches (sheet). In very good condition notwithstanding a repaired break going through the image. The repair is so skillful that it is not visible from the recto, but is clearly seen on the verso. Provenance, the Arnold Collection, New York, to Swann in 2000, to a private collection, New York. The National Portrait Gallery has a copy, but we are not aware of another copy. This was one of a group of portrait etchings that were the first prints Soyer made. Cole 1 is a portrait of his father, Cole 2 a portrait of his mother. Cole 3 and Cole 3A are self-portraits, and Cole 4 is a portrait of his brother Isaac. All four were printed in only a few copies each, and all are very rare. Soyer's comments to Gettings on these early portraits in general, and on this one specifically: "I did everything myself, prepared the plate, put it in acid, and printed it myself. I printed on the only kind of paper I had. I didn't try to get fancy paper." "In those days I did many drawings of myself. This was the earliest etching of myself. I didn't think it was very successful because the features are too big for the face, the lips and nose are too big, and so on. When I did it I thought of Rembrandt, of Rembrandt's early etchings of himself, but I didn't consider it successful.