Painted at age 20. In the process of creating a self-portrait, an artist obviously makes use of the mirror; without it they cannot paint a self-image, unless they rely on memory, but that would lead to errors in representation. Of course we seldom see the mirror in the self-portrait because that is what the artist is looking into as they paint themselves. I say “seldom” because there are notable exceptions: we’ve seen the Gertler, but well before that there is the Triple Portrait by the Flemish artist Johannes Gumpp, executed in 1646. In this extraordinary image, Gumpp shows himself no less than three times: in person, in his studio painting with his back to the spectator; in the mirror, with his gaze averted; and on the canvas, looking directly out at us. Here the distinction between the physical mirror in the studio and the “mirror” of the painting is made; the artist has to continually look into the former in order to realize the latter, on canvas, which might be seen as a moral “mirror” that reflects the virtue and skill of the painter. The difference between the two is also seen in relation to doing and seeing. Gumpp regards himself in the mirror, a purely optical strategy and uses his hands to paint the image he sees, a mechanical activity. The skill needed in perfecting the Self-Portrait is negotiation between hand and eye, which inevitably leaves a gap, a blind spot which is neither the painting on the easel nor the mirror. We could, at a pinch, even imagine ourselves in the place of the artist who seems to be looking out directly at the spectator... (http://artintheblood.typepad.com/art_history_today/johannes-gumpp/)