SELF PORTRAITS

When I initially think of self portraits, I think of Rembrandt, as I don’t think anyone has painted more self portraits than him that I know of. Rembrandt shows a steady ageing process, I am inclined to think that this might have been one of the reasons for him doing so, as photography was non existent in the Baroque era of course, and Rembrandt seems to keep a similar pose, depicting ease and calm, as well as using chiaroscuro, which also creates a calm and stillness about the painting. Rembrandt produces a timeline and a documentation of what he looked like, with a consistency and steady change as he starts out a young boy and ends an old man.

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Another artist I admire is Tamara de Lempicka, a Dutch painter famous for her Art Deco portraits in the late 1920s. Her portraits below show a true and consistent style even in her studies. Her use of tenebrism brings mystery and beauty, as she accentuates the femininity and smooth finish on the skin. Also, with a closer eye, one will realise that she likes to include materialistic objects like a car, with gloves and a silk scarf, making her portraits look refined and expensive, rich with excitement and the development of luxuries in the new century. With her bruised rich colours, de Lempicka creates an indulgent atmosphere where the rich live happy and fulfilled.

An artist who also conveyed atmospheres, especially in his self portraits is Van Gogh, and in particular the self portrait and his sketches below. With using an extremely dark and limited palette Van Gogh creates a beautiful murky portrait as if to give the impression that he wants to hide away from the public and paint at his leisure and drown in his misery. Also, his preliminary sketches on the right create a sinister character simply by displaying his prominent profile and harsh hooded eyes. Personally I wish that he could have painted more portraits like this as I believe he creates more atmosphere, mood and mystery.

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One contemporary artist who has created quite vulgar portraits and self portraits is Jenny Saville. Saville distorts her models and herself to strip away all of societies standards of beauty, and she paints the true naked skin, with all it’s blemishes and marks. One particular aspect that interests is her choice to paint herself as vulgar as possible in he full body portraits, as one would think that a painter would want to look as nice as possible without being arrogant, but Saville paints what is there and not what is covered up, and I think she’s trying to say that we have flaws and you can’t run away from them.