Self-Portrait

Date1933

Maker Morris Graves American, born Fox Valley, Oregon, 1910; died Loleta, California, 2001

Label TextThe Northwest Modernist Graves painted this rare self-portrait during a gathering of Seattle artists who had come together to do their own and one another’s portraits. Its quiet intensity, however, belies the communal nature of its creation. The urgency with which Graves approaches his own gaze—as well as the anxious, undulating line containing it—captures not only his physical likeness but also his profound psychological awareness. The thick and vigorous build-up of paint, applied to coarse burlap with a palette knife, divulges the emotive force that guided his hand.

Who was Morris Graves? Even those who knew the artist well pondered the question in their writings about him. With his intense, searching gaze and his deeply self-absorbed demeanor, Graves was an arresting figure—he seemed to have looked every bit the part of a man on a solitary quest for enlightenment. Even his high school teacher recalled that Graves attracted attention just by his presence: "He was so fascinating that some students followed him around to observe his antics."

Self-discovery would seem to have been Graves' motivation to paint. This self-portrait is the result of unflinching self scrutiny. As he looked deeper into himself, Graves became interested not in his physical being but in his spiritual makeup. He imagined himself at one with nature's other life forms and saw himself as another solitary and vulnerable creature—like a delicate bird, whose very existence is shaped by the forces of nature.

Object number85.268

ProvenanceMr. and Mrs. Max Weinstein, Seattle, Washington, by 1956; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1985

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

I believe . . . that in painting, one must convey the feeling of the subject, rather than the imperfect physical truth through photographically correct statement of the object.

Morris Graves, 1937

Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, California, Art Galleries of the University of California , Los Angeles, Morris Graves Retrospective Exhibition, Nov. 5 - Dec. 2, 1956 (New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Feb. 28 - Apr. 8, 1965; Washington D.C., The Philips Collection, Apr. 15-May 7, 1956; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, May 19 - June 30, 1956; Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines Art Center, July 21 - Aug. 26, 1956; San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum (no dates given); La Jolla, California, The Art Center, Dec. 10, 1956 - Jan. 15, 1957; Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Feb.7 - Mar.10, 1957). Text by Frederick S. Wight, John I. H. Baur, and Duncan Phillips. Cat. no. 3. Balboa, California, The Pavilion Gallery, Morris Graves Retrospective, organized by the Fine Arts Patrons of Newport Harbor, California, and the Newport Harbor Service League, Mar. 1 - 31, 1963. Text by Frederick S. Wight. Cat. no. 3, n.p., reproduced. [Text adapted from Morris Graves by Frederick S. Wight, et al., published by the University of California Press in book form, and as catalogue for exhibition organized by UCLA Art Galleries, 1956]. Eugene, Oregon, Museum of Art, Morris Graves: A Retrospective, Feb. 8 - Mar. 13, 1966. Cat. no. 2. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Morris Graves and Northwest Masters, July 21 - Aug. 13, 1972. No catalogue. La Conner, Washington, Museum of Northwest Art, Morris Graves: The Early Works, June 25 - Sept. 30, 1998 (Stamford, Connecticut, Whitney Museum of American Art-Fairfield County, Mar. 12 - June 3, 1998; Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville County Museum of Art, Mar. 17 - May 16, 1999; Beaumont, Texas, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Sept. 9 - Nov. 30, 1999. No cat. no., pp. 67, 70, reproduced p. 4. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Traditions, June 29 - Dec. 10, 1978 (Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines Art Center, Mar. 9 - Apr. 29, 1979). Text by Martha Kingsbury. No cat. no., p. 103. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Views and Visions in the Pacific Northwest, June 7 - Sept. 2, 1990. No catalogue. La Conner, Washington, Museum of Northwest Art, Heads, Oct. 6, 2000 - Jan. 7, 2001. No catalogue. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Morris Graves and Seattle, Nov. 1, 2001 - Oct. 20, 2002. No catalogue. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, From New York to Seattle: Case Studies in American Abstraction and Realism, Jan. 15, 2020 - June 5, 2022. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, Oct. 20, 2022 - ongoing.Published ReferencesJohns, Barbara. Modern Art from the Pacific Northwest in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1990; p. 2, reproduced. Appelo, Tim. "Seattle Goes Boom." The Magazine Antiques (November 2008): reproduced fig. 10, p. 106.

Credit LineGift of Florence Weinstein in memory of Max Weinstein

Dimensions25 1/2 x 19 3/4 in. (64.8 x 50.2 cm)

MediumOil on canvas