About this work
The title "Self Portrait 2 By Paul Cézanne" does not correspond to a single universally catalogued painting with that exact name. However, the most widely reproduced and discussed Cézanne self-portrait commonly referenced as a second or follow-up self-portrait — particularly on art print retail sites — is the *Self Portrait* of c. 1880–81, now held at the National Gallery, London. This work is extensively documented and is a strong match for a "Self Portrait 2" designation. The description below is grounded in that painting.
Cézanne gazes out at the viewer calmly and without overt expression, most likely working from a mirror. Light enters from the left — probably a Paris apartment window — illuminating one side of his face while casting the other into shadow, giving sculptural volume to the cranium set against a flat wall.
He built the dome of the head with short oblique patches of colour laid down in parallel strokes — whites, reds, and ochres for the skin, but with blue outlining the ear and top of the skull, and touches of light green on the right side. These colours echo tints in his jacket and in the dull olive-green wallpaper behind him, while a vertical band of pale blue on the left relieves the otherwise dominant olive-brown palette.
The wallpaper is not merely decorative backdrop but performs a structural role: by repeating elements of its pattern throughout the picture, Cézanne has fully integrated himself with his surroundings.
Although relatively small, the portrait carries a monumentality and authority that belies its format.
Cézanne was around forty years old when he painted this self-portrait in his Paris apartment, around 1880–81 — a period in which he had stopped exhibiting with the Impressionist group after 1879 and was spending increasing time in the south of France.
His self-portraits from the early 1880s mark a distinct change in direction: he distances himself from the Impressionists and introduces the stylistic development known as his "constructive brushstroke" — ordered, similarly sized parallel strokes deployed to create a sense of volume.
The self-portraits are particularly revealing, positioning the artist at significant moments in his biography and helping trace his artistic development.
It is the psychological guardedness of this man — otherwise completely candid about his appearance — that makes the painting so compelling.
This is a portrait for rooms that hold their own quiet — a study, a library, a hallway where things are considered rather than rushed. More than his landscapes and still lifes, Cézanne's portraits serve as markers in his long career, inviting us to ponder the key developments in his painting process and what portraiture can achieve. The subdued palette of olives, ochres, and blue-black means the print sits comfortably against warm plaster
