Self-Portrait

Self-Portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse) is a painting executed by artist Leonora Carrington and is currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She began the painting in London in 1937 and completed it in Paris in 1938. It is one of her most recognized works and has been called her "first truly Surrealist work." The presence of horses and Hyenas soon became a common feature in her work. Description Self-Portrait features an interior space consisting of two walls meeting at a corner, a ceiling, a tiled floor, and an ornately curtained window that reveals a lush, green forest view and a white horse galloping in the distance. Carrington depicted herself seated on a chair in the foreground, gesturing to a lactating hyena on her right. Her wild tresses appear to mimic a horse's mane and the hyena's fur color. Above her head is a floating white rocking horse. The white of her breeches mirrors the white color of both the rocking horse and the horse seen in the distance, and her green jacket reflects the forest exterior. She gazes out to the viewer directly and sternly. Symbolism and interpretations Horses Horses, in Carrington's work, appeared frequently and as early as 1929; they represented an aspect of her animal self as symbols of freedom and liberty. Because of Carrington's interest in Celtic mythology, she would have been familiar with the Celtic goddess Epona, who appeared before her followers on a white horse. The white rocking horse floating above Carrington is most likely a reference to Pénélope, a play Carrington wrote about a young girl who is in love with her rocking horse Tartarus (or Tartar as he is known in the French version)