TitleGuy Pene Du Bois
Artist
Jerome Myers
(1867 - 1940)
Date1937
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 30 × 25 in.
Framed: 34 1/2 × 30 × 1 1/2 in.
SignedSigned lower right: "Jerome Myers. / 1937"
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, December 21, 1937
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number913-P
Label TextPene du Bois commented about this painting in his autobiography:Recently, on being elected an associate of the National Academy of Design, I was required to present a portrait of myself. The old fellow I examined in the glass had grown from having a rather negligible chin to having two. His face blazed in an almost unbeievable red. He hadn't the decency to look natural for any given length of time but kept on staring, for the most part, in a decidedly impertinent manner. After a while there were three of us: the fool in the mirror, the pompous idiot on the canvas and the disappointed painter.
When Jerome Myers came in and said he'd take us all out of our dilemma, I was delighted. I look rather romantic in the Myers portrait which the Academy accepted. I wish I could be as gentle about others as Jerome was. I wish I could feel gentle about myself.
