Self Portraits

Many artists have painted self portraits, some have done so with a sense of humour such as Caravaggio having his own head on a plate that's being carried by Salome. There are many self portraits concealed within Old Master paintings but I'm not going too dwell on these instead I want to say a few words about two specialists in the art - Rembrandt and Van Gogh.

Rembrandt is a household name and he it particularly revered for his portraiture. His paintings especially of old people have great depth. In London we are lucky to have a good collection of Rembrandt's works in the National Gallery. Rembrandt painted numerous self portraits and about sixty have survived. Sometimes he would dress up in fine clothes and he often depicted himself wearing elaborate caps or hats. He may have painted some of these pictures to advertise his skill as an artist or maybe he is showing off. In some of his drawings and etchings he tries to catch different facial expressions, frowning or laughing, which is interesting also he's having fun. However it is not known why he painted so many self portraits, perhaps he wished to examine the ageing process.

Vincent Van Gogh is another Dutchman noted for his self portraits although he didn't paint as many as Rembrandt, an artist that Van Gogh particularly admired. Amongst the many pictures created towards the end of his short life I like his self portraits the most. These paintings are very powerful with their vigorous swirling brushwork and intense glowing colours they give us a glimpse into the artist's disordered mind. Van Gogh's paintings were not appreciated during his own lifetime but he opened the way for art movements such as Expressionism and Fauvism. 

I have painted a lot of self portraits over the years. For me self portraiture is an obvious excuse for self reflection and these self portraits of mine may show some insights into the workings of my own mind. Maybe. When I was younger I often painted and drew self portraits as a way of keeping in practice, painting and drawing from life and learning how to look. And, it has to be said, the artist himself is a free model. 

The picture I have chosen to feature was intended to be a conundrum. Firstly how can anyone paint a picture when their eyes are shut? And then there's the difficulty of painting oneself holding a lily, especially as I'm right handed, so in order to make this picture work it was necessary to take some photographs printing some of them in reverse. 

My most recent self portraits were painted a few years ago, in these two pictures the pose is exactly the same but the ground colour is different. I was interested to see how the colours worked with one image painted onto a cool ground and the other onto a warm tint. I prefer the warm ground myself.