Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago

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Can a portrait show more than just a physical likeness? Gustav Adolf Mossa dared to go deeper when he revealed a glimpse of his mental state in this self-portrait. A bloody handprint, scorpion, and snake coiled around the artist’s neck insinuate a dark, tortured interior lurking just below the surface.

Learn more about “Self-Portrait or Psychological Portrait of the Artist” with Jamie Vaught-Karasek, co-curator of “Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination,” on view through Jan 5.