Albert Anker

This small-scale self-portrait dates from the year in which Albert Anker turned seventy and suffered a stroke. It arrived at Kunstmuseum Bern in 1917 as a bequest from his widow, Anna Anker. The painting depicts the gray-haired artist in three-quarter profile, his gaze candid, focused, and directed towards the viewer. While painting, Anker was also observing himself in the mirror. The painting is surprisingly sketchy and seems to have been created at great speed. Its loose brushstrokes lend it an almost impressionist feel. There is nothing authoritative or status-conscious about it, but would instead seem to be a snapshot in which the artist is critically questioning himself or taking stock.

Since, as far as we know, Albert Anker only painted himself three times during his lifetime, this self-portrait is of some significance, occurring at an important stage in his life. The year before he had been awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in Bern and in 1901, the year the work was produced, the society of Swiss painters and sculptors made him an honorary member. Even the federal council congratulated him on his 70^th birthday. Anker, however, was a man of modesty, and when the Bern art society wanted to organize an exhibition for him in 1901, he declined, writing: “I’ve done what I could, but the wings of a sparrow are not those of an eagle.” As early as 1886 he had written stoically to his childhood friend Auguste Bachelin: “In general, the longer you live, the less funny it is; you’ve already been through all the human experiences and always have to start from the beginning again. There’s nothing better to come than what you already know, and that is depressing. I now have nothing new to expect other than the surprises that my duties as grandfather have in store for me.”