Oil paint on canvas
Tate collection highlights
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-joshua-reynolds-444" aria-label="More by Sir Joshua Reynolds" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Joshua Reynolds</a>
SelfPortrait as a Deaf Man
Bequeathed by Miss Emily Drummond 1930
actions: postures and motions
adults
artist, painter
arts and entertainment
deafness
diseases and conditions
hand / hands raised
man
named individuals
people
portraits
Reynolds, Joshua
self-portraits
work and occupations
<p>Creating self-portraits in character or pulling a face was a traditional form of student exercise. But this image was created when the painter was the most famous artist of the age. Instead of an experiment, it seems to be a more considered statement.</p><p>Reynolds may have focused on his own struggle to hear (he went deaf in later years) as a way of expressing the artist’s struggle to create an image from his raw materials. In his lectures on art, delivered at the Royal Academy, Reynolds stressed the arduous, and thus morally uplifting, nature of art.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
3 November 2003 – 19 January 2004
2004-01-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-03
Portraits of Artists
Collection based display
12 February 2005 – 25 September 2005
2005-09-25
12 February 2005 – 1 May 2005
2005-05-01
2005-02-12
Palazzo dei Diamanti (Ferrara, Italy)
26 May 2005 – 25 September 2005
2005-09-25
2005-05-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-02-12
Joshua Reynolds
Exhibition
12 November 2007 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
12 November 2007 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2007-11-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-11-12
Grand Manner
Collection based display
26 November 2018 – 14 July 2019
2019-07-14
26 November 2018 – 14 July 2019
2019-07-14
2018-11-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2018-11-26
Joshua Reynolds
Collection based display
9 April 2022 – 19 June 2022
2022-06-19
9 April 2022 – 19 June 2022
2022-06-19
2022-04-09
Royal West of England Academy (Bristol, UK)
2022-04-09
Me, Myself, I: Artists' Self-Portraits
Loan-out
24 June 2023 – 29 October 2023
2023-10-29
24 June 2023 – 29 October 2023
2023-10-29
2023-06-24
The Box (Plymouth, UK)
2023-06-24
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Loan-out
Self-Portrait as a Deaf Man
support: 759 × 634 mm
frame: 946 × 813 × 105 mm
Bequeathed by Miss Emily Drummond 1930
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text15">Creating self-<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> in character  or pulling a      face was a traditional form  of student exercise. But this image was created      when the painter was the most famous artist of the age. Instead of an experiment,      it seems to be a more considered statement.  </span>
</div>
<div class="para9">
<span class="text15">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text15">Reynolds may have focused on his own struggle to hear      (he went deaf in later years) as a way of expressing the artist’s struggle      to create an image from his raw materials. In his lectures on art,      delivered at the Royal Academy, Reynolds stressed the arduous, and thus      morally uplifting, nature of art.
<br/> </span>
</div>

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2004-08-18T00:00:00
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actions: postures and motions adults artist, painter arts and entertainment deafness diseases and conditions hand / hands raised man named individuals people portraits Reynolds, Joshua self-portraits work and occupations