Self portrait wearing a hat

Self-portrait Wearing a Hat is Louis John Steele's earliest New Zealand self-portrait and the earliest New Zealand self-portrait in the Auckland Art Gallery collection. Created in his top-floor studio at the Victoria Arcade, it uses the sunlight from the north-facing windows to illuminate his face as he peers into a wall-mounted mirror in order to copy his appearance. The jaunty hat, painter's smock and scarf contribute a bohemian air to this naturalistic self-portrait. Steele had a local reputation for his unconventional attire which this lively work evokes with its lack of formality and quality of engaged casuality. This painting is a fine instance of a colonial artist making an image of himself purely for the pleasure of painting.

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