Austin Osman SPARE

This striking self-portrait is typical of many of Austin Osman Spare’s portraits in its unsettling intensity. Always interested in achieving and expressing a heightened self-awareness, the artist produced a number of powerful self-portrait drawings, pastels and paintings throughout his career. The present sheet may be closely compared to another, slightly larger self-portrait drawing, also dated 1935 and likewise on tinted paper, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The appearance of the artist at around this time is also recorded in a painted self-portrait of 1935.