The 1913 Self-Portrait depicts the artist at the age of 37. At this time, André Evard was in a transitional phase, seeking to break free from Art Nouveau elements and find an individual path to abstraction.
While the composition is axially symmetrical and emphasizes geometric forms, the background, featuring the crocus meadow in Art Nouveau style, is rendered ornamentally; only upon closer inspection is the highly stylized natural model discernible. It depicts a flatly arranged meadow with white, black, and blue crocuses. The work is predominantly executed in muted colors, with only his yellowish-red face standing out.
The symmetrically arranged self-portrait in the foreground features geometric forms: the flatly depicted beard forms a triangle, and the bowler hat exhibits a hemispherical curvature. The self-portrait thus creates a discrepancy between a painterly-plastic rendered eye-nose area and the geometric beard and hat. This geometrization, referencing Cubism, recalls Cézanne’s famous quote from 1904: “All forms in nature can be reduced to the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder.”
Evard himself seems to place particular emphasis here on geometrization: The hemispherical hat seemingly floats on the artist’s head and is far too large for it. The hemisphere is particularly strikingly emphasized by the broad black stripe on it. Similarly, his triangular beard forms a distinct contrast due to the almost unnaturally light white-pink neck. This is also particularly noticeable due to the yellowish-red complexion, which does not match the skin tone of the neck. While the collar and shoulder area exhibit axial symmetry, the blue-red bow at the artist’s neck loosens this up. Evard gazes seriously out of the painting directly at the viewer, as if inviting them to engage with the composition.
Indeed, this work hints at the upcoming Constructivism in Evard’s painting, which reached its peak almost ten years later with the “Rose Series” of 1923/24.