![]() ![]() Other areas of the canvas, The painting is neither signed nor dated, which is unusual for Rembrandt’s self-portraits. ![]() Some areas of the painting, like the white linen cap and his right hand resting on his hip, appear to have been merely ‘blocked in’, ready for the artist to return to later. There is an on-going debate about whether Rembrandt ever finished Self-Portrait with Two Circles. The focus is no longer on the action of painting but on Rembrandt’s likeness. In doing so, Rembrandt transformed the painting from an image of an artist at work, captured in the act of creating a painting, to the image of an artist in his studio. He therefore altered the composition, transferring his tools into his left hand, realigning his body with the front of the picture plane, and hiding his now empty right hand in the folds of his painter’s tabard. The error presumably happened because Rembrandt was precisely copying his reversed reflection in a mirror. We know from other self-portraits that Rembrandt did not paint with his left hand. His artist’s tools – palette, brushes and mahlstick – are held in his right hand. The x-ray shows him turned further to his left, with his left hand raised in the act of painting. Originally, Rembrandt had painted himself at work. Rather than showing himself in the act of painting, Rembrandt stares directly at us, with one hand on his hip.Īn X-ray of Self-Portrait with Two Circles reveals that Rembrandt dramatically altered the composition of the painting and in doing so, changed the way in which he presented himself. To the right can be seen the edge of the canvas on which he is working. ![]() In his left hand he holds the tools of his trade – a wooden palette, brushes, and a long mahlstick, a tool used as a rest to steady his hand while painting. ![]() He is plainly dressed in working clothes with a fur-lined tabard, traditionally worn by painters since the 16th century, along with a simple white linen cap. Unlike many of his earlier self-portraits, in which Rembrandt depicted himself artificially posed or acting out a part in an elaborate costume, Self-Portrait with Two Circles shows him simply as a painter in his studio. Among the largest and most imposing of all Rembrandt’s self-portraits, it is celebrated for its technical brilliance and ruthless honesty, offering one of the most distinctive and defining images of the artist. It was begun around 1665 when Rembrandt was 59. This painting at Kenwood was one of his last. They trace his life and career from ambitious young artist, through the confident and successful painter of the 1630s and 1640s to the aged, troubled master of his late years. Over the course of his 40-year career he painted, drew and etched roughly 80 self-portraits. His use of artifice and costumes not only celebrates a historical genre but also anticipates a future in which identity is something created by the artist, and humanity is expressed by everyday people.An innovative and prolific painter, draughtsman and etcher, Rembrandt van Rijn was one of the greatest artists of the 17th-century Dutch ‘Golden Age’. Taken together these four paintings show Rembrandt’s brilliant skill as a painter, especially as a painter of people, as well as his deep knowledge of historical subjects and art history. She is clearly directing her gaze elsewhere, but to whom or to what? While the image is a “portrait” of a young woman, it also gives the subject herself agency. At the same time, she looks askance, her face half-shrouded in darkness. Placing her hands firmly on the wooden ledge in front of her, she creates a physical barrier between herself and the viewer. However, in the Art Institute’s painting, the woman does not directly acknowledge us as a dear friend or valued customer but rather leans forward out of the door and, seemingly, out of the picture plane. Paintings in which the subject greets the viewer at a shop or house door are not uncommon indeed they date back to the Renaissance. Costuming plays less of a role in Young Woman at an Open Half-Door by Rembrandt and his workshop instead it is the way in which the young woman interacts with the viewer that complicates the work. ![]()
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