Dubsky studied at the Slade for an undergraduate and postgraduate degree. He states: 'under the mentorship of Dorothy Mead, whose work… seemed challenging, radical and heroic… I wholeheartedly subscribed to the Bombergian approach’ being ‘the continual process of drawing from life with charcoal, of using thick cheap paint, and of being almost solely concerned with form, mass and structure’. This 1960 self portrait was done as an undergraduate. It is fascinating to compare this picture with Bomberg’s own apocalyptic late self portraits, works only separated by a handful of years from Dubsky’s. Dubsky’s is a slighter work; his presence is much gentler and more tentative than Bomberg’s, yet Dubky’s brushstrokes here have something of the dynamic sweep of late Bomberg.