Alexander Phimister Proctor’s “Self Portrait”

Proctor, Self Portrait, 2.16.9

Alexander Phimister Proctor (1860–1950). Self-Portrait, 1882. Oil on paperboard mounted on canvas, 26 x 22 inches. Gift of A. Phimister Proctor Museum with special thanks to Sandy and Sally Church. 2.16.9

The Center is home to four studio collections – those of Frederic Remington, Joseph Henry Sharp, W.H.D. Koerner, and Alexander Phimister Proctor. Our collection of Proctor material includes sketches, prints, paintings, plasters, bronzes, studio effects, and related historical material. These collections were donated over the last decade or so by the artist’s descendants and the A. Phimister Proctor Museum.

Among the most recent gifts is this incredible self-portrait. It pictures the artist as a rosy-cheeked twenty-two-year-old, with his cowboy hat tilted back at a rakish angle. This shows him at the outset of his long and prodigious career – he’s confident and youthful.

Proctor is best-known as a sculptor of wildlife and western subjects, and for his public monuments, but this portrait showcases his skill in two dimensions. It is well-executed and a faithful likeness. It dissolves into painterly brushstrokes in muted greens and brown at the painting’s edges, almost like the patina of a bronze sculpture.