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Cezanne painted himself around 26 times, and he made a steady, patient sitter, since he could keep himself posing as long as the work needed. This self-portrait dates from about 1879, when he was around the age of 40 and living partly away from Paris. He wears a black felt hat, his face lit sharply from the right while the rest sinks into a plainly brushed background. Around this time he was building his pictures out of small, deliberate parallel strokes, laying colour in patches so that a cheek or a shoulder feels constructed rather than described. The look he gives is level and a little wary, the gaze of a man used to studying his own face in the mirror for hours.