Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting
c. 1638–1639 · Oil on canvas · Royal Collection Trust, London
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This print

About this work
- Artist
- Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656)
- Year
- c. 1638–1639
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 98.6 × 75.2 cm
- Collection
- Royal Collection Trust, London
- Movement
- Baroque
A woman in a green dress leans into her work, brush raised in one hand and palette in the other, her dark hair loose, a gold chain with a mask pendant at her throat. The details follow Cesare Ripa's prescription for the figure of Painting almost to the letter, and because Painting was by convention a woman, Artemisia Gentileschi could do what no male painter could: be the allegory and the artist at once. She painted it in England around 1638 to 1639, where she had gone to join her father Orazio at the court of Charles I, and it was in the king's collection, dispersed after his execution and recovered at the Restoration of 1660. It remains in the Royal Collection, number 405551, and has been shown at Hampton Court. Michael Levey first proposed that the figure is Artemisia herself; not everyone agrees, but the idea has stuck.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Details & materials
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About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
The full-bleed edition
The painting printed edge-to-edge at its own proportions, filling the whole sheet — and available on gallery-wrapped canvas.













