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“Autorretrato (Self-Portrait)” by Ida González (Chilean) - Témpera / c. early 1960s - Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago, Chile) #WomenInArt #IdaGonzález #González #SelfPortrait #ChileanArt #art #artText #ChileanArtist #WomanArtist #WomensArt #WomenArtists #MuseoNacionalDeBellasArtes #MNBA
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes shares a provenance detail that reframes this self portrait as an act of agency because it entered the museum in 1970 as a donation from Chilean artist Ida González herself. Even without a recorded year of execution, that gift turns the painting into a public self-document, placed deliberately inside Chile’s national collection. It’s rectangular, vertical self-portrait that shows the artist from the chest up, turned three-quarters to the left while her eyes meet ours directly. She appears middle-aged. Her black hair is gathered into a bun. Broad, matte planes of warm tans and cool grays shape a light-to-medium soft brown face as a deeper shadow gathers along the cheek and jaw, giving her head a sculpted weight. Strong brows and elongated dark eyes create a steady, appraising gaze. Her mouth is small, with full lips softly tinted. She wears a dark, round-neck top with a narrow reddish trim at the collar and a beige jacket. The background is neutral and largely unworked, so the face, brushstrokes, and dark contour lines do most of the describing as direct, simplified, and unsentimental. González (Ida Eugenia González González) was born in Vicuña (Valle de Elqui) and studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes and the Instituto Pedagógico of the Universidad de Chile. She also pursued printmaking at Taller 99. Her work has engaged popular art, Chilean textiles, and social anthropology, and biographies note that after marrying the Cuban-Chilean painter Mario Carreño she set painting aside for a period before returning to sustained creative work. Read with that arc in mind, the portrait’s half-turn and unwavering gaze hold a tension between inward assessment and outward address as an artist claiming her image, and then, by donation, choosing to share it.
December 13, 2025 at 6:04 AM