1/3 Fine Art Collection: Rembrandt by Himself (P3)

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Part 3/7 Rembrandt by Himself (2003)
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
Rembrandt van Rijn has been described as the greatest artist of the Dutch school of the Seventeenth Century. Thoughout his life he obsessively painted a series of self-portraits which now act as a visual autobiography. This film explores some of these self-portraits and shows us that not only do they present a picture of his changing painting technique, but they also capture the essence of the man throughout his life, allowing us to develop a deep familiarity with him, his life and work.

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Closed Caption:

yeah
he of course was his most available
subject and he's simply using himself in
different ways like a day William film
director casting somebody always in in
different levels
it reminds me a little bit of in the
fairground where they leave a hole and
someone puts their didn't you think okay
and i always feel with his heads when
you see them you think ahead that's the
most marvelous invention what would ya
lucian freud britain's leading portrait
painter has a private preview of the
exhibition of Rembrandt's self-portraits
in the National Gallery in London
that's episode came out of the segment
see wonderful it's the first time
they've been shown together a unique
pictorial autobiography of over 70
images from his early years in the 16
twenties in the dutch provincial town of
leiden to his death in amsterdam in 1669
at the age of 63 observation the way you
observes himself so detached and that's
why it's so strange that their self
portraits
it's never here i am again it's here's
another portrait
who is it of whether his knee
Rembrandt produce more self-portraits
than any artist before him why he did so
remains a mystery
the only Clues we have the images
themselves
ditching was done very beginning of
Rembrandt's career when he is still
living lighten and was done as part of a
group of these studies of heads they're
not ready self-portraits because what he
was doing he was trying to study
different expressions which would be of
use to him when he came to paint
religious pictures
not only do heads but sometimes he put
his own head are onto this study of a
bigger a very miserable crying bigger
which is quite clearly not a portrait
but a study of railroad himself and
we're quite a number of these kind of
figures the time it was one fucking
polyglot society and am stem and who the
bigger than the speeds but very much
part of the amsterdam seen one of the
problems in approaching this hill
subject Rembrandt's self-portraits that
they weren't known as self-posts the
time artist didn't that the concept was
something that came very much later what
we call a self-portrait would in fact
have been described at the time
portrait of Rembrandt done by himself
not a self portrait by Rembrandt you
would think that in self-portrait by
definition is authentic
who else could paint the painting of the
image we saw in the mirror
nevertheless there are authenticity
problems with self portraits and this is
a beautiful case in fact the painting to
my left which is in the haight in the
mouse house was until recently
considered to be the original the
embodiment of remnants early style as a
painter started very finely and
developed to a more crude manner and
this painting which was known was in the
reserves in New bear and was considered
to be a copy now it looks rather shabby
it's not very attractive painting at
first you and so this situation lasted
until the German art historian said I
think this is the original also because
of the x-ray I see that the painter has
made changes while working at cetera and
I think this is a copy
he was first not believed but this
painting was investigated very far away
and they found something which they
haven't found ever within early REM the
front found and underdrawing with
infrared reflect ography and the
underdrawing did not look at all
Rembrandt dish it was a rather weak kind
of drawing of the kind somebody who's
preparing himself to make a copy could
have been making and once the doubts
were cast everybody we all start to see
this is the original and this is the
copy and there is the idea that this
painting is done by probably remans
first pupil here Dow and it would be a
good chance that he made that copier to
train in painting technique now this
painting is not what you would call a
portrait of RAM them down by himself
it is rather a face with a specific
meaning because there is to the left of
the have this long lock which was called
the love lock which was actually only
used by quarters and no wonder the
painting soon was called Prince Rupert
I think that Rembrandt was the first
artist to depict himself in the
self-portraits with the berry and it had
a immense impact on later generations of
painters what he did use were well
fabrics to see how the light falls on
just the edge over here and we know he
had fabrics in his studio not not
costumes but fabrics one of the
fascinating things about particularly
earlier work is that he drops himself
into the subjects there's one example
here in the exhibition in early history
peace with no adults going on i'm
completely impenetrable subject zooming
from Roman history and suddenly in the
back you see Rembrandt appearing in his
22 here obviously using himself as the
field in which to experiment about light
and shade and right at the beginning I
think that extraordinary trick that
roundhouse about how shade can be used
to engage the viewer I think it's really
cool towards portraiture that amazing
capacity to conceal but make you feel
that you could you could find it out
even you look more closely and already
here were terrific eager to find out
what's going on in the eyes of the other
self portraits I suppose with with
everyone including young cameramen in
the sense that young Cameron always
liked to experiment I did to a
Technicolor I did all the wrong things
deliberately to see how far you would go
and with him he painted to access to see
just how it all worked out that early
picture of the artisan studio
is revealing in the sense that the
shadows from the easel a quite sharply
defined which anorthite would not be so
sharp which accentuates the fact that my
personal belief was that REM was able to
black out sections of the high window to
emphasize another very highlight this is
the North light effect which is a
highlight and soft but powerful and he
was able to make it very dramatic but by
his use obviously impasto painting made
a big difference to be used to build out
the structural part with the with his
masterly painting but usually was a
cross light which made a triangle on the
side of the face
but then when when he wanted to make it
to bit less dramatic and more flattering
he would have a soft light on the face
which is more frontal more pleasing and
sort of lighting that sees me much
better definitely although i probably
need much more diffusion on the lens but
that doesn't matter but we the cameraman
usually has to watch very carefully this
for light goes too high and a cross
light if we go back to a cross light
again when you have a cross light on the
face particularly the woman if this part
here is a bit pronounced and some
actresses it's more pronounced and
others then this is a very damaging
light so the Cameron has to avoid that
at all costs
Marlene Dietrich example she was
brilliant cameraman in her own right i
mean she worked with Josef von Sternberg
and he taught her a lot about
photography and she was to have a
full-length mirror by the side of the
camera and she say Harry the the colitis
could be a bit stronger and the
backlight stronger and the the lights a
little too hot you know she would tell
Harry my cameraman I was his assistant
and he would say to meet God damage is
always right
I was working on the catalog of the
Rembrandt prints and diverse are sitting
there and suddenly date someone standing
in front of me and looked up got the
most terrible shock because there seemed
to be the image of Rembrandt himself it
was in fact Charles Laughton
his face is so much can't identify with
that Rembrandt that I had a kind of idea
that I was seeing a vision standing in
front of me
nobody show
good morning master oh boy in 1631 he
decides to move to Amsterdam power and
probably the main reason he did say was
he was commissioned to paint the anatomy
lesson dr. top that famous painting in
the Americas us and the time he must
have had a sense study or wanted to
present amsterdam with a formal image of
himself
this is a serious budget to describe
elegant much more elegant anything we
see before and it is they can swear a
portrait and this was how Rembrandt
wanted himself presented itself to the
citizens of amsterdam and it would
remember he's moving from a small
investor town very much provincial
society to an extremely sophisticated
cosmopolitan center and one can see this
is his calling card
memo then already was famous he his fame
was early and it may well be that there
was a marked or let's say that there
were people who were interest to have
his image and attach the painting was
made to give as a present or sell to an
art lover who admire this work
Absalom was a town but at the same time
also a village and people were on the
street all the time if you have lived in
allowed for that you know that you know
all the faces and when somebody is
outstanding for one professional to
another people start to tell stories
about and i'm sure they recognized as
that painter that famous young painter
Rembrandt becomes one of the most
successful artists in Northern Europe
winning lucrative public and private
commissions
however you brought us our picture
benedict come on it's going seven
yeah in 16 party fall he marries saskia
the daughter of a wealthy burger and
shortly afterwards they appear together
he paints himself as the particle son in
the good days jolly days of the prodigal
son when he drinks and wantons with
Sasuke on his knee and there is
Rembrandt enjoying the good things of
life and again a very ambiguous name is
he is he saying this is what
at my age ought to be doing or is he
making an account morale . who knows
there's the very remarkable fortunate
when he puts his self-portrait in at the
foot of the cross as the cross is being
raised
so that he is one of the people actually
crucifying Christ which must be more
than just using himself as a model is
clearly some kind of engagement with the
symptoms story in 1639 Rembrandt have
become an extremely successful artists
are there was a feeling in this edge