Self Portrait

Fildes's 1883 self-portrait, held in Aberdeen, was painted when he was in his early forties and at a pivotal professional moment — the Social Realist phase of his career had brought considerable fame with Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward and The Widower, and he was beginning the transition toward portraiture and the royal commissions that would occupy his later career. Self-portraiture for a Victorian artist of Fildes's standing carried professional and personal significance: it demonstrated technical command, provided a record for the artist's own collection or for exhibition, and engaged with the tradition of artists documenting themselves at career junctures. The Aberdeen collection, which also holds Forbes's 1891 self-portrait, evidently pursued self-portraits by significant British artists as a coherent collecting strand within its holdings.

Fildes applies to himself the same careful tonal modelling and smooth academic technique he brought to his commissioned portraits. The paint surface is controlled and precise, revealing the technical discipline that underpinned his Social Realist narratives as much as his later official work. The self-examination is honest rather than flattering.