Self-Portrait-Shorn (Self-Portrait in the Artist's Telegraph Hill Studio)

Otis Oldfield returned to his native Sacramento from Paris in 1924 but stayed only briefly before moving to San Francisco and becoming an instructor at the California School of Fine Arts. It was at his Telegraph Hill home and studio that he painted this self-portrait.

Shortly after this work was painted, Oldfield began to receive wide recognition. In 1933, his work was included in an exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York. He was later accorded a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art (now SFMOMA). In 1946, Oldfield purchased a summer home in Gold Run, Placer County, but later moved to nearby Alta, producing scenes of the Sierra and the Gold Country’s historic sites.