Self-Portrait

This canvas belongs to one of the strangest collections in Europe. In the 1660s Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici began gathering the portraits that artists had made of themselves, and his heirs kept at it for centuries, until the Uffizi held the largest such collection anywhere. Largillière painted this around 1727, when he was about 71 and among the most sought-after portraitists in Paris. Sending your own self-portrait to Florence counted as an honour, because it meant the Medici wanted your face among the masters. He shows himself turned toward us, wig full, gaze level, a working painter rather than a courtier. The collection he entered has never stopped growing, and living artists are still invited to add their portrait to it today.