Self-Portrait at the Table

A female figure, that of the artist—in a seated position, elbows on the table and her head in her hands—stands out against an intense and vibrant yellow-green background. A fragile presence, as if lost in thought, her gaze fixed blankly on the table. This painting shows us a figure of the solitary artist, a reflective image.

This self-portrait—made by the artist during the confinement imposed by the pandemic in 2020—shows the painter in the grip of her moods, of doubt, “perhaps also of paralysis, of the threat of immobility,” of the difficulty or even the impossibility of creating. For Claire Tabouret, “it is a question of the weight of life when one creates, of discouragement.” It is the “figure of the artist as anti-hero” in its fragility, its vulnerability, perhaps in its questioning, that she captures.

Claire Tabouret's repetition of the same motif, her face, allows her to reflect on the difference and diversity of each individual: “My painting is also a way of researching my own path, my identity, my wanderings, my doubts. I find it reassuring to know that tomorrow there will be another, a new one. You don't need to sum yourself up in an image, to answer a question in one go. Everyday, I try to find a fragment of myself.”

This work is presented for the first time in 2021 by the Pinault Collection in the inaugural exhibition of the Bourse de Commerce, entitled "Ouverture".