GOEZ, József Ferenc
(1745, Nagyszeben - 1815, Regensburg)

Self-portrait

1785
Oil on copper, 65.5 x 49 cm
Historical Picture Gallery, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest

This bust portrait of the smooth-shaven, pleasant-looking young man emerges against a dark background. He turns his contemplative eyes on the spectator. His Vatermörder neckerchief and brown coat with its collar turned down match the fashion of the time. His simple, unreserved pose and the fine-tinted colouring ensures the pleasant harmony of the picture. Nothing is felt here of the theatrical poses and rhetoric of Baroque courtly portraiture. With the style and artistic approach of this portrait Goez followed the sober bourgeois view and sincerity of such German painters as Anton Graff or Dorothea Therbusch. This portrait probably can be identified with the self portrait which, according to Goez's biographer, E E Lipowsky, was conserved in Leopoldskron's Firmian Mansion, and was listed in the collection's portrait lists as de Goez Baron. As with to other painters' self portraits, this one also came to Budapest after the dispersal of the collection. This is confirmed by the picture's dimension and type of inscription, which are similar to those of the other self portraits (Rugendas, Purgau etc.).


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