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Core Record |
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| Title | Self Portrait | |
| Collection | Manx Museum | |
| Artist | Hoepfner, Franz (German artist, 1850-1893) | |
| Date Earliest | about 1885 | |
| Date Latest | 1893 | |
| Signed | yes | |
| Description | Hoepfner was a German artist who moved to England in the 1870s. After his suicide at his Liverpool studio in 1893, the newspapers referred to his 'dissipated' lifestyle which, they stated, had been exacerbated by the recent death of his wife. Here, Hoepfner has painted himself as the typical bohemian artist with wild, unkempt hair and beard and wearing an artist's smock. The expression is rendered gloomy and introspective by the shaded eyes which convey a combination of fierceness and melancholy. He has painted himself in front of a partly rendered brick wall - possibly a way of distancing himself from the type of bourgeois artist, although it has also been suggested that this backdrop represents the Liverpool studio where he eventually ended his life. | |
| Current Accession Number | IOMMM: 2000-0064 | |
| Subject | portrait (Franz Hoepfner) | |
| Measurements | 59 x 49 cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Purchased from Mannin Collections, Peel, Isle of Man, 2000. | |
| Rights Owner | Manx National Heritage | |
| Author | Dr Patricia Smyth | |