This is a significant work from Beckmann's first period, in which he still did not show the tendency for the avant-garde art that he would later develop. We see here clear references to the history of painting; on the one hand, the obsession for the self-portrait, like Rembrandt, which the painter would maintain throughout his life; the influence of Impressionism in the use of fragmented painting, which also reminds us of Hals, and, finally, a frontal and severe and inscrutable presence that takes us back to the Bizantine image of Christ blessing.
