The Mirror Stage in Self Portraits: Beyond the Reflection

The Mirror Stage in Self Portraits: Beyond the Reflection

By: Paul H*********z (ID: 266*******)

February 9th, 2018

ARTH 2**

In order to make an analysis of Jacques Lacan's interpretation of the “Mirror Stage” we must first try to evaluate the defining elements of this term. Once we have improved our understanding of how reflection and apperception relate to self-portraits, we can see how it is utilized. The Canadian paintings that will be compared and contrasted are Under the Shadow of the Tent by Helen Galloway McNicoll and Self-Portrait by Antoine Plamondon; in order to see how the Artists see themselves in the literal and figurative sense. The “Mirror Stage” is a psychoanalytic concept by Jacques Lacan, who suggests that infants go through a stage in which they see an external image of the body, or reflection which then produces a mental depiction of how the viewer represents their ego or a physical object beyond themselves, apperception. (ARTH 272, lesson 4) Before we compare the paintings to this notion, we will need to evaluate and examine the context of each painting first.

In Helen Galloway McNicoll’s piece titled Under the Shadow of the Tent, we see a reflection of her persona. (Fig. 1) McNicoll was a Canadian artist, who was deaf since her infancy and this impairment contributed to her keen perception and silent settings, characteristic of her work. This painting was composed in 1914 and is displayed in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Quebec. The 83.5 x 101.2 cm impressionist piece, uses oil on canvas to allow McNicoll the opportunity to blend, layer and provide a rich depth of color to portray her self-image. In McNicoll’s painting, we see two women doing their own separate activities in a calm demeanor under a tent’s shadow. The light blue and sandy colours of the beach provide us with the serene tone that McNicoll is invoking. Upon further inspection, we see the young woman in the foreground reading a book and an older woman with a hat behind her mixing paint. This can signify the leisure activities that McNicoll enjoyed in her youth and her later years. In the far distance from the sheltered women, we see two distorted figures in the distance which brings forth a sense of isolation that the artist may have felt. McNicoll was deaf and could have felt different or alienated from society, this small and subtle indication suggests this. To provide contrast, the playful setting of reading a book on the beach suggests a pleasant and calm experience and symbolizes the artist’s introspective nature. The shadow of the tent provides a sense of coolness from the rest of the image’s warm and sunny surroundings.

Antoine Plamondon was a catholic and Canadian portraitist of the 19th Century and in Plamondon’s aptly named painting Self-Portait from 1882, we see his eternalized and final reflection displayed in the Musée du Séminaire de Québec in Quebec City,