Every now and then, an artist from the past will suddenly seem to be everywhere—and right now, that artist is the Dutch Master Rembrandt van Rijn.
In the past six months, there have been dozens of exhibitions of Rembrandt’s work: In Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum staged a show called All the Rembrandts, collecting more than 400 pieces for the first time ever. In London, Gagosian staged an exhibition of Rembrandt’s self portraits shown next to contemporary work, titled Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now. In Chicago, the Art Institute ran a special exhibition called Rembrandt Portraits (along with an essay focused on the artist’s relevance today, entitled Face Time: Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits). A slew of new books have followed, too, from Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel, to Taschen’s latest tome, Rembrandt: The Self-Portraits.
There’s good reason for all this attention: 2019 is the 350th anniversary of the artist’s death. But the flurry of interest in the Dutch master is uniquely focused on what he seems to have in common with the present.
Rembrandt was the first artist to paint himself often. He completed 80 known self-portraits, for reasons art historians have debated for decades. Some claim he was creating collector’s items, or advertising his talent to prospective clients, since he often depicted himself wearing wildly rich garb or historical outfits. Others argue he was practicing painting facial expressions, or depicting himself as an artist to further cement his fame as a painter. Over time, his self-portraits became more introspective and raw; the last he ever produced shows him staring thoughtfully at the viewer—no crazy hats to be found.
Whatever Rembrandt’s motives, his self-portraits feel uncannily contemporary: Here’s a person who depicted his own face, dozens and dozens of times, sometimes in wild costumes and scenes, other times in a state that can only be described as a mess, expressing every emotion from happiness and sadness to hilarity and anger. One self-portrait shows 23-year-old Rembrandt looking disheveled and surprised, his raised eyebrows and open mouth in the shadow of his wild, curly hair. In Taschen’s new book, the art historians Volker Manuth, Marieke de Winkel, and Rudie van Leeuwen explain that the painting may have been a place to practice for the young painter—but it was also something more: “In addition to a study of light effects, this is also an exercise in recording a fleeting moment, a sort of snapshot effect which Rembrandt would later use frequently in his history pieces and portraits.” Ubiquitous front-facing cameras and face-tuning apps let us do much the same thing at a moment’s notice today.
We’ll never know exactly why Rembrandt painted himself so often compared to his contemporaries, but it’s easy to see why his images resonate deeply now. “Selfie” is usually used as a pejorative—a byword for the narcissism that tech seems to inspire in people. But Rembrandt’s selfies suggest that self-portraits can be more than that, whether they’re made for viewers or just for ourselves: 350 years after Rembrandt painted that last self-portrait, he seems to give us some license to depict ourselves without feeling so shallow.
53 comments
Great delivery. Great arguments. Keep up the amazing work.
Hello! I understand this is kind of off-topic but I had to ask.
Does managing a well-established blog like yours take a large amount of work?
I’m completely new to operating a blog however I do write in my
journal on a daily basis. I’d like to start a blog so I will be able to share my own experience and feelings
online. Please let me know if you have any kind of ideas or tips
for brand new aspiring bloggers. Appreciate it!
Normally I do not read article on blogs, but I would like to say that
this write-up very pressured me to check out and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me.
Thanks, quite great post.
Howdy very nice blog!! Man .. Excellent .. Wonderful .. I will bookmark
your site and take the feeds also? I’m happy to search out numerous helpful info right
here within the publish, we want develop more strategies on this
regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
Pretty! This has been an incredibly wonderful post. Thanks for supplying this
information.
wonderful submit, very informative. I’m wondering why the opposite
experts of this sector do not realize this. You should continue
your writing. I am sure, you have a great readers’ base already!
Useful info. Lucky me I found your site unintentionally, and I
am stunned why this coincidence did not came about earlier!
I bookmarked it.
I used to be suggested this website by means of my cousin. I’m not
certain whether this submit is written via him as no one else recognise such distinctive approximately my trouble.
You are amazing! Thanks!
It’s in fact very difficult in this active life to listen news on Television, thus I simply use world wide
web for that purpose, and get the newest information.
Greate post. Keep writing such kind of information on your page.
Im really impressed by your blog.
Hello there, You have done a great job. I will definitely digg it and in my opinion recommend to my
friends. I am sure they will be benefited from this
web site.
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme.
Did you design this website yourself or did you
hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply as
I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know where u got this from.
thanks
My coder is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the costs.
But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on numerous websites for about
a year and am nervous about switching to another platform.
I have heard very good things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
This is my first time pay a quick visit
at here and i am actually impressed to read everthing at one place.
This is a good tip especially to those fresh to the blogosphere.
Simple but very accurate info… Thanks for sharing this one.
A must read post!
Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up
and also the rest of the site is very good.
I like it when folks come together and share thoughts.
Great blog, stick with it!
Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after checking through some of the post I realized
it’s new to me. Nonetheless, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!
Thanks for finally talking about > How to take a selfie,
according to Rembrandt – Pavvy Designs < Liked it!
You are so awesome! I don’t suppose I have read something
like this before. So great to discover another person with a few genuine thoughts on this subject.
Really.. thanks for starting this up. This web site is one thing that is needed on the internet, someone with a little originality!
If some one desires to be updated with hottest technologies
therefore he must be visit this web page and be up to date daily.
I got this website from my buddy who informed me
on the topic of this web site and at the moment this time I am visiting this site and reading very informative posts here.
I am really enjoying the theme/design of your site. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility issues?
A handful of my blog visitors have complained about my site not
operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox.
Do you have any ideas to help fix this issue?
I really like it when folks get together and share ideas. Great site,
keep it up!
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets
I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest
twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like
this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this.
Please let me know if you run into anything.
I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be really something which I think I would never understand.
It seems too complicated and very broad for me.
I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!
Post writing is also a fun, if you be familiar with after
that you can write otherwise it is complicated to write.
If you desire to grow your experience simply keep
visiting this site and be updated with the most up-to-date news posted here.
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an really long comment but
after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear.
Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyways, just
wanted to say excellent blog!
Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running
off the screen in Ie. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something
to do with browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know.
The style and design look great though! Hope you get the issue fixed soon. Many thanks
Paragraph writing is also a excitement, if you be familiar with afterward you can write or else it is complicated to write.
Its not my first time to visit this web page, i
am visiting this site dailly and obtain nice information from here every
day.
Heya are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m
trying to get started and set up my own. Do you
require any coding knowledge to make your own blog?
Any help would be really appreciated!
Have you ever considered creating an ebook or guest
authoring on other sites? I have a blog centered on the same ideas you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know
my visitors would value your work. If you are even remotely
interested, feel free to send me an email.
Link exchange is nothing else however it is just placing the other person’s webpage link
on your page at proper place and other person will also do similar for you.
Amazing! Its actually awesome piece of writing, I have got much clear
idea regarding from this post.
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up and the rest of the
site is also very good.
Wow! At last I got a website from where I be able to in fact take useful data regarding my study and knowledge.
I think this is one of the so much significant info for me.
And i am glad reading your article. However wanna
commentary on some basic things, The web site style
is ideal, the articles is in point of fact great
: D. Excellent job, cheers
Post writing is also a fun, if you be familiar with after that you can write or else it is complex to
write.
Inspiring quest there. What happened after? Thanks!
my homepage: http://www.agriverdesa.it/?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=user&id=5047557
Hey there! This post couldn’t be written any
better! Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate!
He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to
him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thanks for
sharing!
I do believe all of the concepts you have introduced in your post.
They are very convincing and will definitely work. Nonetheless, the
posts are very brief for newbies. May just you please extend them a little from subsequent time?
Thank you for the post.
Great beat ! I would like to apprentice whilst you amend your website, how can i subscribe for a
weblog web site? The account helped me a acceptable deal.
I had been tiny bit familiar of this your broadcast provided vivid transparent concept
Appreciating the persistence you put into your site and in depth information you present.
It’s great to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same outdated
rehashed material. Wonderful read! I’ve saved your site and I’m adding
your RSS feeds to my Google account.
I was curious if you ever thought of changing the structure of your blog?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way
of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two images.
Maybe you could space it out better?
Hello mates, its impressive paragraph on the topic of
tutoringand fully explained, keep it up all the time.
These are actually impressive ideas in concerning blogging.
You have touched some pleasant points here. Any way keep up wrinting.
It’s appropriate time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy.
I’ve read this post and if I could I want to suggest you some interesting things
or suggestions. Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article.
I want to read even more things about it!
Hi, just wanted to tell you, I loved this blog post.
It was funny. Keep on posting!
Your style is very unique compared to other folks I’ve
read stuff from. Thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I will just bookmark
this blog.
Hello, after reading this amazing piece of writing i am also
delighted to share my knowledge here with friends.
Thanks very nice blog!
It iss iin reality a great annd useful piece one of the best live sex information. I’m happy that you shared this hellful informatfion with us.
Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you forr sharing.