[First and Last Thoughts] (Self-portrait)

Balla made numerous self-portraits in some of which he portrayed himself painting, as is, for example, the case in the Self-portrait of the same year now conserved at Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin. In the Academy’s self-portrait, however, the allusion to his profession is subtler and more veiled. He sits before the viewer, dressed informally, wearing a flannel jacket and a light-blue scarf. The painting’s horizontal format allows him to flank his own face with a reproduction of another self-portrait in pastels by his daughter Elica, entitled Primi pensieri [First Thoughts].
[L. P. Nicoletti]