Rembrandt's self portrait in Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
During my virtual tour in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain. I noticed this self-portrait of Rembrandt, wearing a hat and two chains. Among all of the beautiful arts in the museum, my somatic reading of this self-portrait is that the figure is static, calm, and have high social status. When I did more research on Rembrandt. His life story from being the most successful artist that all aristocrats want in Amsterdam to bankrupt and die in poor. Rembrandt's art and his life story has impacted on how I understand art, and he also had huge impact on the Northern Renaissance.
Self-portrait wearing a hat and two chains Harmensz. Van Rijn Rembrandt, c. 1642-1643
oil on panel, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
In the journal article Self-Portrait with Rembrandt Self-Portrait, wrote by C.K. Williams. It stated a life story of Rembrandt. Young Rembrandt dropped off college when he was 14, and started to study painting in Amsterdam. He started to get famous in year 1630 because his portrait tells story and shows off wealthy portrait figures in an implicit way. He had painted a few self-portraits in the different stage of his life. This self-portrait of Rembrandt himself was created on 1642 to 1643, it was the same year that he painted his another masterpiece, the night watcher.
This is the most successful period of Rembrandt's career. Having a portrait from Rembrandt has became a showcase of the aristocrats' wealth, power and artistic taste. However, one of his portrait painting offended Knight Andries de Graeff. Since then, no one purchased Rembrandt’s paint anymore. He was in heavy debt and soon claimed bankruptcy. Later, he had a chance to comeback in fame by painting the legendary story about Claudius Civilis in the Town Hall. However, he followed his heart to paint Civilis as a naturalism and realism rebel. This painting didn’t get approved and he had to cut off the painting into small pieces and hope to sell it apart. His time has passed. But he still believed to paint the truth and what he believed. He was an artist that get along with the aristocrats and he developed his own unique skills to mark his own name.
Rembrandt’s theme has been changed from rich powerful luxurious to tender simplicity. However, all of his paintings tell stories and very detailed. His style was naturalism, realism, and tenebrism. For example, in this self-portrait wearing a hat and two chains, the elegant fur clothing and the elaborated chains on Rembrandt's textile, indicated his richness. Rembrandt showed off wealthy without making it showoff. Also, he liked to use chiaroscuro visual element technique in his paintings. In the self-portrait wearing a hat and two chains, Rembrandt created a shade in the background, the different layer on the dark fur coat also created an illusion and made the audience realize the texture of this expensive fur coat. His face stays still and his eyes are looking deep inside of the viewers eyes. This self-portrait is like a mirror of his soul.
Rembrandt is a legendary artist and he had huge contribution in the western art. He was experiment printmaking by using drypoint, etching and engraving. For example, in the printmaker: the self-portrait with Saskia, he used himself and Saskia as models to explore character’s emotion. Just like how he tells stories in his painting, he was experimenting to capture the emotions behind characters in printmaking.
Rembrandt, the self-portrait with Saskia, c. 1636
Rembrandt explored to paint on different texture and media, he believed that art exist to tell the truth about human condition. He consistently tried to capture the truth behind a figure. He insisted that art is to tell the truth and he stood for it, and this is his altitude and dignity. Like Christopher Brown said in his journal: The Rembrandt Year": "In Rembrandt's portraits we feel face to face with real people, we sense their warmth, their need for sympathy and also their loneliness and suffering. Those keen and steady eyes that we know so well from Rembrandt's self-portraits must have been able to look straight into the human heart." (Brown P106).
This video briefly discussed the things that we don't normally know about Rembrandt. It is a fun fact about him. Rembrandt has huge contribution in western art and the Northern Renaissance, his artistic style of naturalism, realism, and tenebrism have marked his own name on every piece of his work. He used the light and shade, the chiaroscuro to depict figure. He is not just paint portrait but he is observing people's heart and look into others soul. I really enjoyed my tour in the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, I hope I can visit the museum in person one day.
WORK CITATION:
C. K. Williams. “Self-Portrait with Rembrandt Self-Portrait.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle, vol. 63, no. 1-2, 2002, pp. 384–386. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.25290/prinunivlibrchro.63.1-2.0384. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
Brown, Christopher. “The Rembrandt Year.” The Burlington Magazine, vol. 149, no. 1247, 2007, pp. 104–108. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20074724. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
Alux.com- 15 Things You Didn't Know About Rembrandt, www.youtube.com/results search_query=rembrandt.
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