Rembrandt (1606-1669)
Self-Portrait
c.1629
Oil on oak panel, 44 cm × 34 cm
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
Over the course of more than forty years, Rembrandt portrayed his own likeness at least seventy-five times. In this highly unconventional work, painted when Rembrandt was in his early twenties, the artist casts much of his face in deep shadow and obscures most of its outward appearance. His lips parted in spontaneous speech and his eyes all but invisible, Rembrandt‘s self-portrait conveys an intense preoccupation with his own artistic identity and inner imagination.
Study your emotions in front of a mirror, where you can be both performer and beholder.-Samuel van Hoogstraten, 1678. (IMA)