“Portrait of a Young Jew (Self-Portrait)” by Nathan Altman, 1916 — Gypsum, copper & wood, 51×31×27cm. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. [OC] [1330×2000]
“Portrait of a Young Jew (Self-Portrait)” by Nathan Altman, 1916 — Gypsum, copper & wood, 51×31×27cm. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. [OC] [1330×2000]
Nathan Altman was one of the most fascinating figures to emerge from the Russian avant-garde — a Jewish artist working in St. Petersburg at a moment of enormous political and cultural upheaval, deeply influenced by Cubism and the work he’d absorbed during time in Paris.
This self-portrait is a remarkable object. The gypsum face carries that mask-like stillness you associate with Cubist fragmentation, but there’s something almost confrontational about it — the downward gaze, the set of the jaw. The top hat sits slightly wrong, assembled rather than worn, which feels entirely intentional. The mix of materials (gypsum, copper, wood) reinforces that constructed quality — this isn’t a naturalistic portrait, it’s an argument about identity.
The title itself was a statement. 1916, wartime Russia, and Altman puts his Jewishness front and center.
Photographed at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, August 2014.
TootTootUSA on
I’m a little surprised this was displayed at a prominent Russian museum considering their general anti-Semitism.
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Day three posting OC
Nathan Altman was one of the most fascinating figures to emerge from the Russian avant-garde — a Jewish artist working in St. Petersburg at a moment of enormous political and cultural upheaval, deeply influenced by Cubism and the work he’d absorbed during time in Paris.
This self-portrait is a remarkable object. The gypsum face carries that mask-like stillness you associate with Cubist fragmentation, but there’s something almost confrontational about it — the downward gaze, the set of the jaw. The top hat sits slightly wrong, assembled rather than worn, which feels entirely intentional. The mix of materials (gypsum, copper, wood) reinforces that constructed quality — this isn’t a naturalistic portrait, it’s an argument about identity.
The title itself was a statement. 1916, wartime Russia, and Altman puts his Jewishness front and center.
Photographed at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, August 2014.
I’m a little surprised this was displayed at a prominent Russian museum considering their general anti-Semitism.