Cleveland Museum of Art

Self-Portrait with Five Muses

Henry Church

Date

c. 1880

Medium

oil on paper mounted to board

Culture

America, Ohio, Cleveland

Department

American Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Lifelong Chagrin Falls resident Church is considered one of the great self-taught artists of 19th-century America. A painter, sculptor, and musician by passion, he offered his appearance and enthusiasms in this highly imaginative self-portrait, surrounding himself with a squadron of miniature winged muses. These figures represent not only the traditional arts of painting, sculpture, and music, but also Church's profession of blacksmithing (identified as a crowned figure holding a hammer and anvil). A savvy entrepreneur, Church launched the first commercial art gallery in northeast Ohio: Church's Art Museum, at Geauga Lake, in 1888. Its inventory consisted entirely of his own work. Church "spoke" at his funeral via an Edison phonograph recording he made for the occasion.

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