361. A Portrait of Thomas Sturge Moore

Artist's friends are most likely to be portrayed by an artist, perhaps even more than relatives, certainly when the artist and the sitter are young. Self-portraits of younger artists do abound as well. Sometimes, unknown self-portraits come to the fore.

Here we have a newly discovered self-portrait of the poet Thomas Sturge Moore, a friend and collaborator of Ricketts and Shannon during the 1890s, and long after.

Thomas Sturge Moore, Self-Portrait

Not much is known about the portrait. It is in a private collection. It is executed in red chalk and drawn to the sheet edges of a piece of paper c. 35,5x25 cm.

We see a very young Sturge Moore, poet and artist, looking both insecure and thoughtful. As it is a self-portrait, one wonders what the artist wanted to express about himself, even if this was intended as a non-personal study of light and shadow, and a balance between white and red parts. The artist looks kind of worried and inspired at the same time.