Rembrandt van Rijn,
Self-portrait with mouth
open, a drawing
The Netherlands, around AD
1628-29
Rembrandt first drew the face and collar with
pen and brown ink. The line is fluid and strongly applied, although
it has faded with time. He then drew in the hair, the unlit part of
the coat and the dark side of the face with broad sweeps of the
brush and grey wash. It is likely that Rembrandt drew himself under
a strong artificial light from the left, as a second layer of grey
wash reinforces the central line of darker shadows that divides the
lighter from darker areas. The white of the paper alone suggests
the dramatic light.
The
portrait has been ruled at the edges to create a frame.
Rembrandt's promotion of his self-image through numerous
self-portraits in paintings,
engravings,
etchings
and drawings is well known. This rapid sketch, one of his first
self-portraits, was made when Rembrandt was between 22 and 23 years
old.
Rembrandt was not just
interested in his own features for his own sake. He also needed to
understand and reproduce accurately the widest variety of human
feelings and emotions. Samuel van Hoogstraten, who was a pupil of
Rembrandt's, wrote in his Introduction
to the Art of Painting
(1678):
You
will benefit from depicting your passions as you see them before
you, especially before a mirror, where you are at once subject and
beholder.
In
this drawing, the artist's open mouth, his dark open eyes
and his ruffled hair create a vivid immediacy.
C. White and Q. Buvelot (eds.), Rembrandt by himself (National Gallery, London & Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1999)
M. Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and his, exh. cat. (London, The British Museum Press, 1992)