Murillo: The Self Portraits

One of the most celebrated painters of the Spanish Golden Age, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo is well known for his religious paintings and his extraordinary depictions of street children. He was also an ingenious portraitist, although this aspect of his oeuvre is less studied.

Marking the 400th anniversary of his birth, the exhibition reunites the two known ‘Self Portraits’ by the artist: one of Murillo in his thirties from the Frick Collection, New York (about 1650–5) and the other from the National Gallery Collection showing him about twenty years older.

With approximately ten additional works, including other paintings by Murillo and later reproductions of the two self-portraits that reflect their fame in Europe, ‘Murillo: The Self Portraits’ presents an exciting opportunity to appreciate this leading figure in Spanish 17th-century art in a new light.