Rembrandt - a never-ending experience
Self-Portraits
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Self-Portrait
1629
Oil on panel, 15,5 x 12,5 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
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Raising his head, the young man turns it briefly to one side. His
tangled, flying hair falls over his brow and the nape of his neck. His soft lips
are slightly opened, his eyebrows raised. The movement that he makes brings his
face into the ray of light falling over his left shoulder. For a moment, his
cheek and the tip of his nose are lit up above his white collar. The shaded eyes
meet those of the observer, without fixing themselves upon them, as if they had
become aware of something, as if they were searching for something. The open
countenance appears lost in thought, given up to the world around it. The very
small format nonetheless reveals a highly effective interplay between the light
and dark elements. The application of paint is varied, carefully smoothed
transitions being visible alongside spontaneous brushstrokes, scrapemarks,
smudges and dabs.
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Self-portrait
1640
Oil on canvas, 102 x 80 cm
National Gallery, London
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Self-portrait
1639
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Dressed in furs, brocade and velvet, a man rests his forearm on a barrier, in
such a manner that his elbow with its sumptuously heavy stole projects forwards. The face, in half-profile under the sweeping cap, reveals a hint of
noble melancholy. Its gaze is directed towards the observer, yet keeps to
itself. The precisely composed figure stands out against the neutral,
predominantly bright background as an individual, present form. The posture of
the portrait's subject and the perfection of the manner of painting call to mind
the work of other great artists, such as that of Titian or Raphael. "Rembrandt
f. 1640", written in a broad hand, may be read on the barrier to the right.
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Self-Portrait
1669
Oil on canvas, 86 x 70.5 cm
National Gallery, London
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Simeon with the Christ Child
in the Temple
1666-1669 |
The old man wears a gown and cap of dark velvet of a reddish-violet hue broken
towards brown. His hands are folded in front of his body, his facial
features composed. His gaze, resting upon the observer, notices him, meets his
eyes, communicates with him, enquiring. Resignation and expectation, scepticism
and familiarity, lack of fulfilment and contentment with his lot are present in
equal measure in the tranquil countenance. His brow and the cap's white border
are lit up against the background, which disappears to the right into a darkness
of immeasurable depth. The figure appears near, and yet also unapproachably
distant. Its atmospheric surroundings pull the observer in. The lines
delineating the eyes, the bridge of the nose, and the side curls are finely
distinguished; in contrast, the surrounding contours disappear in such a manner
as to give the impression of incompleteness. The colour of the garment is
simultaneously comprehensible and incomprehensible: it can be defined — and yet
defies definition. As with the fulness of expression contained in this figure,
so with the colours and forms: they, too, do not appear here as something
enduring. That which creates such a vivid impression upon the observer escapes
any defining concept, going beyond the realm of words. The open structure, with
its almost uncompleted appearance, nevertheless asserts itself as one that is
finished, one in which the observer directly and completely participates.
Three figures, three styles, three worlds. The change in Rembrandt's painting,
taking place over a creative span of forty-four years, is one of an extremely
far-reaching nature. The richest display of unparalleled artistry in painting
and virtuosity results directly from what are sometimes almost clumsy or wild
beginnings - although a closer look reveals them to be most eloquent - until a
pictorial form finally develops, the enigma of which remains unsolved to this
day. The succession of paintings, together with the no less important etchings,
point to a restless searching. Each picture, every version of the same picture,
represents a new experiment, referring back and looking forward, with new
qualities constantly coming to light. The great abundance of freehand drawings
provides evidence of unrestrained creative powers allowing of no submission to
any step-by-step process. This development nevertheless constitutes a unity:
from beginning to end, Rembrandt was to remain true to those tasks and motifs
which he had originally adopted. In retrospect, this development can be seen as
following a consistent course.
This becomes particularly clear when one examines different versions of the same
subject-matter. For example, the seventeen different sketches and arrangements
of Simeon with the Christ Child alone offer a
succession of new versions.
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Self-Portrait with Wide-open Eyes
1630
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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Self-Portrait, Bent Forwards
1628 |
Furthermore, the series of self-portraits - surely not
the result of the artist's later occasional financial
straits preventing him from coming up with the fee for a
model - is without equal. These pictures should not be seen
merely as a portrayal of Rembrandt in the various stages of
his life, nor do they simply reveal the variety of
possibilities by means of which he could convey facial
expression - although he did experiment with this in
impressive ways as a young man. The series is still capable
of causing astonishment as one of the most radical
self-portrayals in the world of painting. The portraits
referred to above include one of his earliest, one from the
middle years of his life, and one of the last pictures that
he was to produce. On looking at the pictures for the first
time, the observer is immediately struck by the diversity of
this personality through the manner in which the artist
depicts himself as a young man, presents himself in
mid-life, and achieves the effect of a personal contact in
the final year of his life. If one wishes to get closer to
Rembrandt's art, however, it is more important to examine
the pictorial qualities by means of which these
differentiated inner qualities first become comprehensible.
These portraits give us an insight into a career which
outwardly consisted principally of constant work with no
spectacular incidents. Rembrandt lived in Leiden during his
apprenticeship and initial years as an artist, thereafter
spending the rest of his life in Amsterdam; unlike other
artists, he never travelled to Italy. The climax of his
civic prestige was overtaken by the death of his first wife,
Saskia van Uylenburgh, in 1642, while legal disputes and a
bankruptcy created difficulties for him. However, he was
enabled to enjoy a number of years of undisturbed creative
work thereafter through Hendrickje Stoffels, his mistress,
and his son, Titus. He lived in a secluded manner, but not
in isolation, and received commissions from cultured friends
and collectors.
After times of mystification, Rembrandt's circumstances and
his work have been the subject of extensive research. The
conditions under which his pictures were produced, his
clients, those depicted in his portraits - all these have
been investigated; his subject-matter has been related to
the art of that time; his painting technique has been
reconstructed. Most important, those works originating from
Rembrandt's own hand have finally been separated from what
soon became an equally high number of pictures attributed to
him - for whatever reason — and accepted as such until very
recently. The fact that questions still remain, among them
those in the field of motif interpretation, for which
research has failed to find an answer does not suffice to
explain the present interest in his art, something which was
not sparked off until the beginning of the 20th century and
has yet to die down. The latest knowledge made accessible by
the 20th-century art world appears to have served merely to
heighten, rather than diminish, this fascination with
Rembrandt's painting.
Rembrandt's complete works have a characteristic nature all
their own, yet it was only in the course of his development
that the effect of his pictures, so totally his own, unique
in the history of art, would take on such a nature. It is
those qualities of the later works requiring the observer's
active involvement that are still to be discovered today.
It is the intention of this little book to point to the
effect upon the observer of Rembrandt's painting. What
follows will concentrate accordingly upon the pictures. A
process of selection proved necessary; nor was it possible
to embark upon any comparisons with other painters. If
attention is to be focussed upon the qualities in question —
albeit only in broad outline — then there is space here to
go into only a few examples in depth.
An attempt will be made to follow Rembrandt's development via the observation of his pictures. Suggestions will be
put forward in this context with regard to the reader's own observation of the
pictures - after all, if it really is a question here of observation, then
nothing can replace the experience gained when the observer himself sees a
picture.
A division into three parts emerges here, one which might appear to be behind
the selection of the self-portraits considered above. Reality is far more
complicated, however. Many phases can be distinguished, but it is almost
impossible to separate them from each other. One characteristic merges with the
next. Individual observations can be used merely as an opportunity to notice the
change taking place in an overall context, the analysis of which would have to
remain ever in question.
In interpreting a picture as a representation of something, one usually fails to
notice its effect upon the observer from a purely visual point of view. However,
an attempt to follow Rembrandt's artistic path by means of an observation of his
pictures cannot afford to pass up an understanding of the subject(s) portrayed
in those pictures. If the observational qualities of Rembrandt's pictures are to
be clearly grasped, it must first be quite plain to what extent the purely
visual elements in a picture — the depiction of a particular event, for example
— convey to the observer the underlying meaning of the work in question. It is
only through a precise and thorough examination of the concrete details,
together with a reflection as to what it is that makes one or the other feature
recognizable, that the pictorial qualities themselves can be appreciated — not
in some general, unfocussed manner but each in the quite individual form in
which it is effective. Accordingly, the following examination will take a course
such as will first go into Rembrandt's manner of representation, in particular
the structural conception of his pictorial scenes. This in turn will gradually
render essential a direct discussion of the pictures' purely visual qualities. A
mandatory passage through those elements which can be appreciated in the
pictures will be necessary to clear the observer's gaze, so that he can then see
with the same awareness where it is only a question of seeing - namely, in the
later work.
The development that Rembrandt's paintings undergo is no path from the
incomplete to the perfect, from the approximate to the precise, from the
sketched to the accomplished; nor does it follow the reverse course. It
completely converts everything comprehended in the picture — the symbols, the
narrations, the figures, the spatial dimension, the light, even the temporal
event -into the observational reality of the picture: in short, it changes
comprehension itself into vision. This art thereby touches upon the fundamental
certainties of recognition. The experience of Rembrandt's art appears more
relevant than ever before. It can reveal itself today as a never-ending
challenge to make oneself conscious of the chances offered by the observational
act. Rembrandt - a never-ending experience.
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Self-Portrait Open-mouthed
1630 |

Self-Portrait with Cap,
Laughing
1630 |

Self-Portrait with Knitted Brows
1630
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Self-Portrait drawing at a window
1648
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 Self-Portraits
1650; 1652; 1660
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Little Self-portrait
1656-58
Oil on wood, 48,5 x 40,5 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
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Self-Portrait
1658
Oil on canvas, 133,5 x 104 cm
Frick Collection, New York
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Self-Portrait
1660
Oil on canvas, 80,5 x 67,5 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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Self-Portrait
1669
Oil on canvas, 59 x 51 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague
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