Ivan Albright was elected Associate National Academician in 1942. He requested additional time to complete his self-portrait, which was granted by the Council. Six years later he had still not finished the portrait, and after another reminder by then Secretary, Eliot Clark, Albright responded in November 1948: "You may inform the Council at its next meeting that I have finished the Oil Self Portrait. I worked most of last year on it and would have had it done sooner save that I went thru a major operation at a hospital." The painting shows the artist in his new State Street studio in Chicago with the large window in the background.