This may be a self-portrait: the high forehead, receding hairline, round eyeglasses, and pipe are all elements shared with a 1933 portrait of Rothko by Milton Avery (1885–1965) and a self-portrait of a few years later (figs. 1, 2). If it is a self-portrait, its unusual format has few if any precedents in the history of art.
1. Milton Avery, Portrait of Mark Rothko, 1933, oil on canvas, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, The Albert Pilavin Collection.