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Rembrandt at 22, 1628, Rembrandt van Rijn |
There is hardly a painter alive who hasn't, at one time
or another, attempted at least
one self-portrait. As near as I can recall, I've
done about five or six, the earliest being when I was about 14. The most recent
one wasn't a painting but a colored pencil drawing.
Sometimes artists paint themselves out of ego, sometimes out of boredom,
sometimes because they simply lack an affordable model. Sometimes they can be
very introspective, in other cases, very superficial and pretentious. Vincent
Van Gogh, of course, is famous for his self-portraits. He painted over a dozen
of them. That sounds like a lot, but the average for most well-known artists
over a lifetime is about that. The only difference is, Van Gogh painted that
many over the course of just two or three
years. However, the world's champion
self-portrait painter of all time was Rembrandt van Rijn.
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Rembrandt Self-portrait at 23, 1629 |
Rembrandt, over
the course of his lifetime, painted more than
forty self-portraits, and this
number reflects only those that have
survived. It also doesn't count numerous
drawings and etchings in which he used his own likeness to study facial
expressions. There is some doubt as to the exact number because there are a few
paintings of Rembrandt in which the actual painter is in doubt, and in other
cases, paintings in which the painter is not in doubt but the setter
is. (Is it
Rembrandt or
isn't it?) His earliest was done in 1628 when he was a young man of
22 (top). Much of the face is in shadow with the light coming from behind the figure
indicating it was probably done as a study of light and color while he was still
a student. Another, done a year later, exudes a quiet confidence, depicting, in
its highly polished style, the work and demeanor of a rising young star in the
art world of his time.
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Rembrandt Self-portrait, 1669,
possibly his final one. |
Rembrandt's self-portraits, taken as a whole, have
an eerie quality to them. You can actually see the man age and evolved right
before your eyes. His 1862 self-portrait, hanging in the Uffizi in Florence, is
rich with impasto but sadly self-effacing. Painted at a low point in his career,
only the richness of his colors rescues it from somber flaccidity. His last,
painted in 1669 is apparently unfinished, but even at that, appears to be one of
his best. It would seem to be a sort of last will and testament--how he wished
to be remembered by posterity. In between his first and last are a wildly
varying group of visual incantations ranging from the preposterous costumed
works to highly dignified renderings consciously painted in the tradition of
Titian and Raphael. There are even cases in which he used himself and his wife,
Saskia, in disguise as models such as his 1635 painting,
Return of the Prodigal Son (bottom). He
appears to have used the money he saved in not hiring models to buy the
expensive outfits they wear in the painting.
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The Prodigal Son in the Tavern, 1635, Rembrandt van Rijn,
saving money on models. |
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