SELF PORTRAIT
Rembrandt van Rijn 1606-1669
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
COMMENT by De Mer
The Master of his time and in many critics opinion the Master of Masters. This self portrait painted in 1657 is considered one of his greatest of the 60 or so known Self Portraits of Rembrandt. Aged 50 at the time and during a period of decline in his popularity as the major Dutch artist (around this time, he had to have a liquidation sale to keep his standard of living from declining). All Rembrandt's Self Portraits are done with so much honesty, never flattering himself, even the portraits of his youth and those of friends and family bear his honest observation (sometimes to a clients disatisfaction). This painting shows the multi faceted talent of Rembrandt the Artist and the result is a reflection of the multi faceted renaissance man Rembrandt the Person. The use of paint spans all the great movements preceeding him and some of those to come after, some aspects verging on Impressionism. Pure colours of paint has been built upon the brow to give a mottleness, the furrowed forehead and skin blemishes of age, this honesty to himself manifests in Rembrandt's masterly use and varying application of paint styles. The brush stroke used for his hair shows the Masters flair and confidence that subtley lies behind that intense gaze. The deep examination of himself not just physically but of who he is as a person, shows all the victory and defeats of his humanity and what shows through is a modest pride of "a man who knows Himself".
