In my paper, I argue that Artaud’s self-portraits prove the realization of the theatre of cruelty. These drawings are manifestations of a human attitude, of an existential standpoint that is the result of the imperative of moral rigor: cruelty. Artaud strived to reach his own double, his other, more essential self. As the double of the Artaudian actor incarnates the essence of life, so the Artaudian self-portrait might be interpreted as the manifestation of the creator’s self, his human essence. But to make essence appear both in the fields of the theatre and drawing, first of all, pure presence is necessary. One cannot grasp pure presence in the theatre, nevertheless, it shows itself, as a frozen moment, in Artaud’s drawings, documented by the face and the look of the everlasting witness of cruelty.