© Anne Dockery

This self-portrait with pipe, originally owned by John Nowell, a friend of the Gotlibs and a significant collector, has been dated to between 1950 and 1952 by the artist’s widow Janet Gotlib, who compiled the main catalogue of his works. After their first meeting, Janet described her future husband as ‘dark, not very tall but erect, slight, but with broad shoulders. His face was that of an ascetic; yet at the same time the twinkle in his eyes told one that here was a man who was warm and human, and capable of enjoying the pleasures that life has to offer’.

The work was painted in Gotlib’s characteristic bold, Expressionist manner, in the period following his short term appointment as Professor at the Academy of Art in Cracow in 1949 and his return to England in May of 1950. The couple moved to Godstone in Surrey in 1951 and the artist entered a more introspective period in which he painted a number of self-portraits including ‘Self Portrait’ (c. 1955-56, Ruth Borchard Collection) and the half-length ‘Self Portrait in Duffle Coat with Dog’ (1956, National Portrait Gallery).

We are grateful to Anne Dockery (the artist' estate) and the Gotlib archivist, Ivor Jarman, for assistance in cataloguing this work.