Self-portrait as a young man

The painting depicts a young Patania—twenty-seven years old at the time—who was a pupil of Giuseppe Velasco’s and constantly attended the Nude Academy. He portrays himself against a dark background and enhances his intellectual and professional identity by employing two specific elements to identify the setting, i.e., the folder of drawings and his inseparable pencil sharpener. This canvas is already showing an attention to nature, which was a fundamental pillar of the Sicilian figurative tradition and characterised all of Patania’s portrait production.