After seven years spent studying and working in Paris, Ingeborg Westfelt-Eggertz returned to Stockholm in 1890 at the age of thirty-five. She painted this self-portrait around the same time, looking out at the viewer with a self-assured half-smile. Westfelt-Eggertz takes the unusual step of depicting herself with a lit cigarette at a time when smoking was viewed as an unacceptable habit for Swedish women of her status. She does not depict herself simply as a woman artist, holding a paintbrush in one hand, but as a citizen of the world, looking out at the viewer with confidence.
Text: Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), CC BY 4.0.
