Self-Portrait

Nicolae Petrescu-Găină's pen sketch presents a sharp profile study of a mustachioed man in cap and suit jacket, rendered in quick, confident linear strokes. The artist employs the caricaturist's vocabulary of exaggerated features—prominent nose, heavy facial hair—that descends from nineteenth-century European tradition: Gillray's political satire, Daumier's social commentary, and the German Bilderbogen popular prints that influenced early sequential art. This self-portrait demonstrates how caricature became not merely a tool for mocking others but a vehicle for artistic self-examination. The economical pen technique and physiognomic focus place Petrescu-Găină within the lineage connecting historical print satire to modern comics—both forms that distill character and personality through exaggerated yet recognizable features.