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Academy Self-Portrait

Academy Self-Portrait
Usage Conditions Apply
Artist
Prentiss Taylor, 12 Dec 1907 - 7 Oct 1991
Sitter
Prentiss Taylor, 12 Dec 1907 - 7 Oct 1991
Date
1949
Type
Print
Medium
Lithograph on paper
Dimensions
Sheet (overall): 50.5 × 38.9 cm (19 7/8 × 15 5/16")
Image: 41 × 26 cm (16 1/8 × 10 1/4")
Mat (overall): 62.2 × 48.9 cm (24 1/2 × 19 1/4")
Topic
Self-portrait
Prentiss Taylor: Visual Arts\Artist
Prentiss Taylor: Male
Prentiss Taylor: Visual Arts\Artist\Painter
Prentiss Taylor: Visual Arts\Artist\Illustrator
Prentiss Taylor: Visual Arts\Artist\Printmaker\Lithographer
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Museum Purchase) The Corcoran Gallery of Art, one of the country’s first private museums, was established in 1869 to promote art and American genius. In 2014 the Works from the Corcoran Collection were distributed to institutions in Washington, D.C.
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Object number
NPG.2019.78
Exhibition Label
Born Washington, D.C.
Prentiss Taylor was one of the most significant twentieth-century practitioners of lithography, a method of producing prints from a drawing made on stone with a greasy crayon. As a teenager, the artist studied composition and drawing at the Corcoran School of Art, and in 1931, he made his first lithographic works while studying at the Art Students League in New York City. He later remarked, “With that first magic feeling of the lithograph crayon working on the fine grain of the stone, I knew that I was at home in lithography.”
In 1948, Taylor was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design, and he made this lithograph to satisfy the required submission of a self-portrait. By representing his head from four different perspectives, he conveys his interest in the relationship between art and psychotherapy, the subject of an American Journal of Psychiatry article that he published in 1950.
Nacido en Washington D.C.
Prentiss Taylor fue uno de los litógrafos más relevantes del siglo XX, maestro de este medio en que se obtienen impresiones a partir de un dibujo trazado sobre piedra con crayón graso. De adolescente, el artista estudió composición y dibujo en la Escuela Corcoran de Arte y en 1931 hizo sus primeras litografías cuando asistía a la Liga de Estudiantes de Arte de Nueva York. Más tarde comentó: “Con esa primera sensación mágica del lápiz de cera moviéndose sobre el grano fino de la piedra, supe que la litografía era mi elemento”.
En 1948 Taylor fue elegido miembro asociado de la Academia Nacional de Diseño y creó esta litografía para cumplir con el requisito de presentar un autorretrato. Al representar su cabeza desde cuatro perspectivas distintas, nos transmite su interés en la relación entre el arte y la psicoterapia, tema de un artículo que publicó en 1950 en el American Journal of Psychiatry.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Location
Currently not on view