Susan Einzig (née Suzanne Einzig, 1922 Berlin, Germany – 2009 London, England)
Self-portrait, c. 1940
Oil on board
27 x 20.5 cm
Current Whereabouts Unknown
© The Estate of Susan Einzig
Immigrated to England 1939
This early self-portrait was painted less than a year after Einzig arrived in England as a teenager on one of the final Kindertransports out of Germany, and was probably executed during her early months at the Central School of Art, which relocated from London to Northampton during the Second World War. Her gaze meets that of the viewer with an unreadable expression, perhaps prefiguring the sense of alienation she experienced in the latter years of the war. The dark palette - here offset by her own figure in red - and the expressive brushstrokes, reminiscent of German painting, were soon to be replaced by a lighter, more Cezannesque palette. In another self-portrait, a head and shoulders pencil sketch from the same period but probably slightly later, she shows herself without props or ornament - simply a head of tousled, cropped hair and a mournful expression, both vulnerable and defiant.
