Self Portrait

© the artist's estate. Image credit: Ruth Borchard Collection

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Creffield’s self portrait was done at the age of 28 while studying at the Slade. He attended Bomberg’s painting classes at Borough Polytechnic, remarking ‘Thank God, I was brought to study with David Bomberg when I was only sixteen, and he made me realise that you don’t have to think things up; that one lives in a world of imagination.’ The self portrait, influenced by Bomberg, conjures up a youthful, floppy-haired figure of gentleness and shyness. Its curiously evanescent features are encompassed within a robustly drawn head, above a vigorously defined neck and solid shoulders. The colours are muted but saved from drabness by the softly radiant pink-fleshed face, neck and oddly exposed upper chest. Creffield’s self portrait strips away all irrelevancies, revealing the artist’s essential youthful self: a warm, gentle, reticent yet incisively searching presence.

The Ruth Borchard Collection

Title

Self Portrait

Date

1959

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 76 x W 63 cm

Accession number

PCF17

Acquisition method

acquired by Ruth Borchard as part of the original collection

Work type

Painting

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The Ruth Borchard Collection

Piano Nobile, Kings Place, 90 York Way, Greater London N1 9AG England

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