Self-portrait

Books, paintbrushes, a rural landscape, a noose, and one of the artist’s own crucifixion paintings. Here, Jeffrey Harris’ emerging identity as an artist is laid out for all to see.

The work was partly inspired by a self-portrait as Christ by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer – a symbol of the artist’s self-sacrifice and supreme role as creator.

When the self-taught Harris made this painting, he had just moved to Dunedin with encouragement from the artist Michael Smither. There, he was introduced to a much richer world of arts and literature than that of the Canterbury dairy farm where he was raised. His self-portrait signals his induction into the art world, with its heady mix of intellectual pleasures and struggles.