--- title: National Selfie Day: 5 Self-Portraits That Made History description: These self-portraits — by people from Velazquez and Rembrandt to Ellen DeGeneres — helped define the form now known as the selfie. canonical: https://time.com/4825506/selfie-day-self-portrait-history/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-21T14:30:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:26.705Z article:section: History og:title: National Selfie Day: 5 Self-Portraits That Made History og:description: These self-portraits helped define the form now known as the selfie og:url: https://time.com/4825506/selfie-day-self-portrait-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: National Selfie Day: 5 Self-Portraits That Made History twitter:description: These self-portraits helped define the form now known as the selfie twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Celebrate Selfies With 5 Self-Portraits That Made History > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 21, 2017 2:30 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 21, 2017 2:30 PM UTC The term “selfie” only dates to [circa 2002](http://time.com/103503/merriam-webster-dictionary-selfie-catfish/), but millennials — while they can take credit for a broad range of social-media innovations — cannot take credit for the idea of taking a picture of oneself. Depending how you frame it, the concept of a self-portrait is centuries-old, and many artists and photographers can take credit for shaping the genre (i.e. [Vincent Van Gogh’s](http://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/collection/impressionism-post-impressionism/vincent-van-gogh-self-portrait-with-bandaged-ear) bandaged ear, [Cindy Sherman’s movie scenes](http://www.thebroad.org/art/exhibitions/cindy-sherman-imitation-of-life), Andy Warhol’s [polaroids](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/andy-warhol-polaroid-selfies-celebrity-795150)). Here, TIME looks back at five self-portraits that stood out. ### _Las Meninas_ by Diego Velázquez  Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, a 1656 painting of the Spanish royal family with his self portrait. © Museo Nacional del Prado Centuries before taking a photo in the mirror became a go-to selfie technique, Spanish painter Diego Velázquez made himself a center of attention in _Las Meninas_ ([“The Ladies-in-Waiting”](http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vela/hd%5Fvela.htm)), his 1656 painting of the Spanish royal family. The king and queen are reflected in the mirror at the back, their daughter is in the middle, but the artist himself is looking straight towards the viewer. ### Rembrandt’s ‘Self Portrait with Two Circles’  Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Two Circles. C. 1665-69. Courtesy Kenwood House, Iveagh Bequest/English Heritage Just a few years after Velázquez put himself in the picture, Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn painted his “Self-Portrait with Two Circles.” The Dutch painter is known for the number of self-portraits he created over the course of two decades, “to keep himself busy in between commissions and because of his ongoing fascination with the aging process,” says Nigel Hurst, CEO of the Saatchi Gallery (which is hosting [an exhibit on selfies](http://www.saatchigallery.com/selfie/) until July 27). This masterpiece helped Rembrandt perfect the genre. ### The First American Selfie  The first photographic selfie by Philadelphia photographer Robert Cornelius. Library of Congress There are many contenders for the title of first photographic self-portrait, but the Library of Congress believes the first one taken in the U.S. was this image by Philadelphia photographer [Robert Cornelius](http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004664436/). The photograph was taken in the yard behind his family’s chandelier store in 1839\. ### The First Space Selfie  Buzz Aldrin space selfie during his Gemini 12 mission in 1966. NASA Astronaut Buzz Aldrin took a picture of himself during his record five-and-a-half-hour spacewalk during the Gemini 12 mission in 1966, a few years before he became the second man on the moon. He would [later](https://www.instagram.com/p/9%5FWgrHvWw%5F/) point out that it was the first selfie in space. ### The Most Retweeted Tweet of All-Time > [](https://twitter.com/TheEllenShow/status/440322224407314432) But which selfie is the most famous ever? That’s a more recent image. In terms of the number of celebrities in one photo, that goes to Ellen DeGeneres, whose selfie from hosting the Academy Awards in 2014 set a record for most retweeted tweet of all time. (The record was [surpassed](http://time.com/4772186/carter-wilkerson-most-retweeted-tweet-free-chicken-nuggets/) in 2017, but not by a selfie.) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4825506/selfie-day-self-portrait-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4825506/selfie-day-self-portrait-history/"},"headline":"Celebrate Selfies With 5 Self-Portraits That Made History","datePublished":"2017-06-21T14:30:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:46:26.705Z","description":"These self-portraits — by people from Velazquez and Rembrandt to Ellen DeGeneres — helped define the form now known as the selfie","url":"https://time.com/4825506/selfie-day-self-portrait-history/","keywords":["Pop Culture","Newsfeed","Tech","Living","Technology","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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