Three self-portraits

Clutton-Brock, Alan, Painters of Today. John Bratby A. R. A., Studio Books, London, 1961.

Finemore, Brian, ‘John Bratby: Three self-portraits’, Annual Bulletin of the National Gallery of Victoria, vol. 1, 1959, p. 25.

Healy, Monica, entry on John Bratby’s Three self-portraits in Ted Gott et al., Modern Britain 1900-1960, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, p. 287.

Yacowar, Maurice, The Great Bratby. A Portrait of John Bratby R. A., Middlesex University Press, London, 2008.

John Bratby’s paintings of the 1950s are insightful depictions of the artist’s painting method. Among his early domestic interiors are numerous self-portraits that show the artist at work, paintbrush in hand and among the clutter of everyday objects. Bratby gave a simple reason for painting himself: ‘I was the most pliable and obedient model. All one needed was a mirror’.¹John Bratby, quoted in Peter Davies, Bratby, Old Bakehouse Books, Abertillery, 2002, p. 54. Three self-portraits, 1957, demonstrates Bratby’s resourceful use of a mirror, with its depiction of the artist’s reflection in a full-length mirrored door, rendered from three different angles.

The painting supportThe physical substrate of an artwork onto which paint is applied. Various materials can be used, including canvas, wood panel, artists’ boards, paper, metal and stone. is composition boardAlso called hardboard. A board or sheet formed of closely packed cellulose fibres or particles derived from wood or other sources. It used principally as a building material. Masonite is a well-known commercial brand of composition board. (also called hardboard or masonite); two roughly cut pieces joined vertically in the centre. At the time, Bratby’s dealer, Helen Lessore, warned that such joins were undesirable for potential buyers: ‘Hardboard is made eight feet long, so it should be unnecessary’.²Helen Lessore, quoted in Maurice Yacowar, The Great Bratby. A Portrait of John Bratby R. A., Middlesex University Press, London, 2008, pp. 50–1. However, Bratby continued to recycle material including supports from unsold works. The two boards that form Three self-portraits, 1957, are held together with a six-member timber strainer,An auxiliary support framework (usually wooden) with fixed corners, over which a canvas is typically stretched. The framework can also be mounted to the back of a rigid support. adhered to the back of the painting and secured extensively with metal brackets and screws (see below). Several screws protrude through to the front of the painting, suggesting an improvised approach to its overall construction.

The large scale of his works during this time were also a concern for Lessore, who tried to encourage Bratby to use canvas rather than hardboard as a way to reduce transport costs.³ibid. p. 51. Yet, from 1957–59, Bratby was immersed in what he described as his ‘large-scale period’, stating that: ‘I had an obsessive urge to work on a large scale during that period’.⁴ John Bratby, quoted in Mary Chamot et al., The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Oldbourne Press, London, 1964, p. 75. This was in part due to the size of his studio: a large room (12 foot square) in his father-in-law’s house at Dartmouth Row, Greenwich.⁵Davies, p. 71. It was a stark contrast from the small bedsit and attic recess that Bratby lived in during his first year as a student at the Royal College of the Arts, London.⁶ibid. pp. 45–6. At Greenwich, Bratby had removed a mirrored door from his wife’s wardrobe and utilised it in numerous large-scale works, including Three self-portraits and companion piece, Three self-portraits with a white wall, also made in 1957. Small details in these paintings reveal the studio arrangement, such as the rope used to secure upright the mirrored door, propped on a chair or stair railing.

Three self-portraits shows minimal preparation prior to the application of the paint layers. A cream coloured ground layer was irregularly applied while the support laid horizontally, evident by numerous paint drips along the edges. The extent of the irregularity is best observed under raking light,Illumination from an oblique angle used to highlight fine morphological features of the object surface. which immediately accentuates an area at the centre where a pool of paint formed and attempts made to level out the paint (see below). The groundA layer(s) of opaque paint applied to a support to provide suitable colour, texture and absorbency on which to paint. Also called priming. layer is likely a commercial house paint, based on the presence of common paint fillers (kaolin and calcium carbonate) found during material analysis, using two scientific techniques, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR)An analytical technique used to identify organic and some inorganic components present in a material, including pigments, binders and fillers. It is non-destructive to the small sample of material that is normally removed. and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF).An analytical technique used to identify elements present in a material, which for paintings can be suggestive of the pigments or other inorganic materials used. It is non-destructive, meaning it does not require taking a sample. Lead was also detected in many of the paint colours, including the ground. It was not long after this painting was made that more comprehensive restrictions on the use of lead-based paint were introduced in the United Kingdom.

Bratby’s paintings have a distinctive impasto appearance, resulting from a technique coined by the artist called ‘tubism’. It describes the process of squeezing paint directly from the tube and applying it directly to the painting support. Documentary sources, such as studio photographs held in the National Portrait Gallery, London, frequently show the artist at an easel with a pile of squeezed paint tubes. Bratby developed this approach as a student at the Royal College of the Arts and had once remarked how it distinguishes him from other painters: ‘I use thicker paint than the others, and my work has a plum pudding effect … for it is crowded with forms, and colours, and blobs and slabs of paint’.⁷Maurice Yacowar, The Great Bratby. A Portrait of John Bratby R. A., Middlesex University Press, London, 2008, p. 20. The ‘tubism’ technique also meant less mixing of paint colours, resulting in a more vivid and bright appearance – another aspect of Bratby’s technique that distinguished him from his peers.

The paint layer for Three self-portraits varies considerably from thin washes to areas of thick and heavy impasto, achieved with Bratby’s ‘tubism’ technique (see below). The impasto, primarily in white and yellow colours, appear as highlights on the figures and chair in the foreground. There may have been an economic reason behind his selective use of ‘tubism’ for this large work, since artist-quality paints in tubes were generally more expensive than commercial house paints in tins. Bratby was known to use Winsor and Newton artist-quality paints, however, in the early 1960s, he quarrelled with the British manufacturer about their products, and by the 1970s switched to using Cryla acrylic artist paints.⁸ibid. p. 110. Overall, the varied brushwork and layering of paint, applied mostly wet-in-wet,Also called wet-into-wet. A painting technique where paint is applied over paint that is still wet. This can result in blending of the paint on the support. The presence of this technique indicates little time has passed between the application of each layer. indicate an effortless ease and speed in Bratby’s painting style.

Raymonda Rajkowski, Conservator of Paintings, National Gallery of Victoria