Spilliaert produced around forty self-portraits, which is a remarkable number, even when you consider his vast oeuvre. Some are small-scale, quick, intimate sketches, while others are detailed, large-scale pieces that he also exhibited. It is not entirely clear why he produced so many portraits of himself, but there are several possible explanations.
For example, an artist doesn’t need much to create a self-portrait: you don’t have to go out and observe a landscape or find and pay a model. A self-portrait is an obvious choice especially if you like to experiment, and that’s something Spilliaert did, being a self-taught artist. The only thing you basically need, besides a support (paper) and materials (ink, pastel, pencil, etc.), is a mirror.
An object that, unlike many other artists, Spilliaert does not attempt to hide. Over time, the mirror became part of the portrait. In some examples he includes the back of the easel, in others we see the endless reflection of a second mirror in the room. Some portraits even depict him holding a pencil in his left hand, even though he was right-handed - so he explicitly shows us his mirror image. In fact, his childhood home at 2 Kapellestraat, where he lived until he was 35, is full of them, with a mirror on every wall on at least one floor. You can see them in his best-known self-portraits from the 1907-1908 period.
Spilliaert’s appearance was also rather striking: his face was somewhat angular with pronounced cheekbones, a high forehead and bulging blue eyes. A 1922 catalogue described him as someone who resembled ‘those fish with an elongated profile’.1 With the right lighting and perspective, his face lent itself extremely well to highly expressive, even dramatic effects. Two almost identical self-portraits, clearly showing the second and third day of the month (probably November), show how Spilliaert was continuously searching, constantly reworking this motif.
Spilliaert’s focus on himself is not necessarily a narcissistic trait but is more consistent with the spirit of the time and literary and philosophical culture in which he engaged. Existential philosophy, Nietzsche being one of its favourite authors, prioritises the personal path of life, authenticity (being true to oneself) and self-awareness. In the symbolist literature Spilliaert enjoyed reading, by authors such as Verhaeren and Maeterlinck, the individual, highly personal experience is key. So, it’s no wonder that Spilliaert produced so many self-portraits: they are, in fact, psychological studies. In some cases, he doesn’t actually depict himself directly, but his bedroom or a corner of his house, as if to say: I, Léon Spilliaert, was here. A predisposition for self-analysis also emerges in his letters, with reflections on his character and state of mind.
