The Amazing History Of The Selfie

Oh, the selfie: The trend that keeps on giving. While most people attribute the rise of the selfie to self-obsessed cell phone-weidling millennials with too much time on their hands, that’s not exactly the case. Here at the Stray Boots headquarters, we did some digging and were surprised to find out that the dawn of the selfie dated back waaayyyy before the internet.

History's First Duck-Face Selfie

artrenewal.com

Is that a glimmer of a duck face we see in this Rembrandt self-portrait from 1630?

History's First Tortured Hipster Selfie

Via en.wikipedia.org

How many times do you think artist Gustave Courbet had to strike this pose in the mirror while working on his 1843 selfie?

History's First Selfie-with-a-Cat

Via artexpertswebsite.com

Louis Valtat's 17th century cat selfie, complete with a waxed handle-bar mustache.

History's First Mirror Selfie

Via en.wikipedia.org

At least artist Parmigianino didn't have to deal with the pesky iPhone flash when he painted this 1524 mirror selfie.

History's First Funny-Faced Selfie

Via artnet.com

Leopold Boilly presumably held this pose for hours at a time while drawing this 1822, which makes the few seconds a 13-year-old makes this face while snapping a picture on his or her iPhone seem like less of a crime.

Want more about history's first selfies? Check out the Stray Boots Blog.