Self Portrait - Anton Raphael Mengs, Anton Raphael Mengs, 1776

Self-portrait artist: anton raphael mengs (german, ústi nad labem (aussig) 1728–1779 rome) date: 1776 medium: oil on canvas dimensions: 35 1/2 x 25 7/8 in. (90 x 65. 5 cm) classification: paintings credit line: harris brisbane dick fund, 2010 born in bohemia, mengs became the most important painter in dresden, rome, and madrid in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. Whereas mengs's portraits of prominent sitters are notable for their delicacy, meticulous detail, and refined beauty, his self-portraits are essays in truthfulness. The discolored swelling on his forehead is a physical defect visible from about 1760; declining health forced him to leave his position as court painter at madrid in 1769, though he returned there between 1774 and 1777. This self-portrait was painted in madrid in 1776 and dispatched to genoa; three other, inferior versions are known. Date: 1776. Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art.