Self-portraiture has been an integral aspect of Opie’s corpus since inception. Earlier iterations saw Opie situating herself within the queer fetish discourse that was prevalent in her 1990s studio portraits. Her latest image takes a more classical turn adopting the visual language of 17th century portraitists. With its chiaroscuro and noble pose, Opie’s honest and un-idealised study of artist and individual shares the formal and aesthetic concerns of the Old Masters, creating an introspective self-portrait of heightened psychological intensity.