A rare Self Portrait (1906, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen)—one of four painted by Matisse over the course of his life—takes on a sculptural quality, as if he had roughly modeled his likeness rather than painted it. The painting lacks the narrative details present in Matisse’s earlier self-representations, such as a brush, an easel, studio surroundings and his eyeglasses—all of which emphasized his identity as an artist. Instead, this self portrait draws focus to the expressive identity of Matisse’s fixed gaze, emerging from eyes roughly rendered in brown and blue contours.
[http://arthistorynewsreport.blogspot.nl/2017/05/matisse-in-studio.html]