Isabel Bishop Self-Portrait

Object Details

Artist

Isabel Bishop, 3 Mar 1902 - 19 Feb 1988

Sitter

Isabel Bishop, 3 Mar 1902 - 19 Feb 1988

Exhibition Label

Isabel Bishop generally chose her subject matter from the street life of New York City that flowed beneath her studio window. She recalled enjoying “the incredible richness of this coming and going of these multitudes of people.” But as a young woman in the late 1920s, she found herself a convenient subject, noting that self-portraiture may serve just “to provide oneself a model, especially handy for a young artist as a means for studying picture problems.” In this etching, Bishop’s concerns are formal: structure, form, gesture, and the play of light on a tilted, slightly turned face. The detached unread- able expression and elegant geometry of the head disguise her personality. Even the hand, resting too lightly to support the head, seems merely a pose she wished to explore. Concealing internal emotions, Bishop used her mirrored reflection to solve pictorial challenges. The resulting print reveals what one critic called “her combination of precision and delicacy.”

Isabel Bishop solía escoger temas de la vida callejera de Nueva York que desfilaba bajo la ventana de su estudio. Comentó que disfrutaba “la increíble riqueza del ir y venir de esas multitudes”. Pero cuando era muy joven, en los años veinte, le resul- taba conveniente usarse ella misma como modelo y decía que el autorretrato servía justamente para “facilitarnos un modelo, útil sobre todo para una artista joven como medio de estudiar problemas pictóricos”. En este aguafuerte, Bishop se interesa en los aspectos formales: la estructura, la forma, el gesto y el juego de luces sobre un rostro inclinado, de medio perfil. La expresión distante y enigmática y la elegante geometría de la cabeza ocultan su persona- lidad. Incluso la mano está apoyada tan levemente que no podría sostener la cabeza y parece una mera pose que la artista quiere explorar. Escondiendo sus emociones, Bishop usó su imagen reflejada para resolver retos pictóricos. El grabado resultante revela lo que un crítico llamó “su combinación de precisión y delicadeza”.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; the Ruth Bowman and Harry Kahn Twentieth-Century American Self-Portrait Collection

1929

Object number

NPG.2002.211

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Copyright

© Estate of Isabel Bishop. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York

Type

Print

Medium

Etching on paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 39.2 x 30.5cm (15 7/16 x 12")

Mat: 40.5 x 31.4cm (15 15/16 x 12 3/8")

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Self-portrait

Isabel Bishop: Female

Isabel Bishop: Visual Arts\Artist\Painter

Isabel Bishop: Visual Arts\Artist\Printmaker\Engraver

Isabel Bishop: Visual Arts\Artist\Illustrator

Isabel Bishop: Visual Arts\Art instructor

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.2002.211

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4bc498c36-7ca0-4f17-81c5-d8540ac3565b