Self-Portrait

The gestural brushwork of Naftulin’s self-portrait indicates her passion for modern French painting, especially that of Paul Cézanne. She depicts herself at work in the studio: she gazes out at a mirror, holding a palette in her right hand and reaching out to her canvas with her left. Only suggestions of eyes, nose, and mouth are present. It’s as if the artist is saying: the paint itself and act of painting are the subject, not the reciprocity of gazes between viewer and subject. The artist once remarked, “The strange thing about this particular painting was that it looked like me, yet I didn’t paint my features.” Naftulin’s own watercolor depiction of Long Beach Island hangs behind her. 

Born in Philadelphia, Naftulin briefly attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (later the University of the Arts) before marrying at age nineteen. While raising three children, she continued taking classes at the Cheltenham Township Art Center, where she studied with Doris Staffel and Dennis Leon. She later took classes in aesthetic philosophy and art appreciation at the Barnes Foundation, and she enjoyed a robust career, showing her work at Roslyn Hahn Gallery and elsewhere, mostly in Philadelphia. 

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