Rembrandt’s Selfies - Esther

It’s not a new idea, but it’s worth a thought, isn’t it?

What would Rembrandt van Rijn’s selfies be like, had he lived now instead of then? One of the most prolific & well-known self-portraitists would surely have one of the most popular Instagram pages? But he would have to be an Influencer otherwise he’d be as poor now as he was then. He’d have to have many, many followers, perhaps a YouTube channel, a reality TV programme or two. Imagine his duck face. If Rembrandt had lived now instead of then, what would we have lost? What would we gain?

Rembrandt possibly before the debt caught up with him 

I actually began this train of thought musing on Gustav Klimt. He completely rejected the self-portrait. It seems almost inconceivable that someone as distinctive, as recognisable in art didn’t appear in any of his own. Gustav wasn’t interested in self-portraits or even discussing himself, saying:

Whoever wants to knows something about me – as an artist, the only notable thing – ought to look carefully at my pictures & try & see in them what I am & what I want to do.

No self-portraits & no interviews. If he’d been here today I don’t know how well Gustav would do if he wasn’t prepared to tell all, yet we can indeed ascertain a lot about him from the works. At least we think we can.

My version of Klimt as I thought he might have depicted himself...& the first artwork I ever sold 

Might Rembrandt have gone the route of today’s Cindy Sherman, taking selfies & manipulating them digitally to create something/someone new & post them on Instagram? I’ve always liked Cindy Sherman – there’s a populist cheapness to a lot of her works that continually appealed to me. If you’re not familiar with her artwork, she dresses up as various characters, sometimes in themed collections & - frankly - takes selfies. With the advent of face apps & other digital devices, she now warps her likeness on Instagram. Although Cindy does not tend to identify “herself” in her art since she is in disguise it is still her body, her face she uses. In veiling herself, she apparently discloses nothing - or perhaps like Gustav, it’s everything. Perhaps the body of work reveals them.

Cindy Sherman - selfie queen

When I consider the purpose of the self-portrait it’s easy to think of obvious abstract concepts associated with them: ego, fear, challenge, truth, self-love, self-loathing. But sometimes that’s just pretentious. Sometimes that’s just wrong. For although Rembrandt’s life-spanning collection tracks his progress & potentially tells us much about his interior life, he was in it for the money too. Rembrandt did not appear to own any self-portraits at the time of his death so we can assume they’d all been sold. People liked to buy artists’ self-portraits in much the same way that people today like to buy celebrity autobiographies. For centuries he’s been there for all to see – his arrogance, frustration, pathos, humour & loss. All of humanity in a single lumpy head.

As a sometime (though not comparable) self-portraitist myself, it can be simply about having an easy - not to mention cheap - model, a chance to practise a technique or medium. For me, it is not about self-exploration. I am not that courageous. I am not that talented. Like the selfie, any portrait can only ever be a snapshot. You can’t gather the entirety of a human in one image. The best we can hope for is a single truth at a certain point in time (minus filters, dog ears, comedy hats, etc). When confronted with a vast, incomprehensible universe self-portraiture can seem like an impatient attempt to leave one’s mark in the face of (no pun intended) our own inconsequence & therefore a sort of agitated folly. Staring at oneself in a mirror for any length of time however gives time for reflection (pun intended) & the outer turns in. When will I be found out? Where are all the bodies buried? In the bags under my eyes?

Versions of myself 

Sometimes, a self-portrait is a means to a higher or more expansive concept. For instance, various artists have forced themselves into group compositions & objects, perhaps staring out at the viewer, perhaps playing a different character. They say, “Hey! I’m here too!” (Jan van Eyck, The Arnofini Portrait) or, “Check out the important people I associate with,” (Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas) or, “I relate to this character & his/her abject misery,” (Harry Clarke’s Faust illustrations) or even, “Yes, I am indeed this flayed skin dangling from St Bartholomew’s fingers,” in the case of a particularly exhausted Michelangelo (The Last Judgement).

Every so often the Self appears as an absence, as in John Byrne’s Self Portrait, a painting of his unpeopled studio & The Old Town of Eastbourne by Louisa Paris, where the things she leaves behind seem to signify her presence. Such self pictures (©Patti Smith) are a representation of the artist, what they wish to be characterised or known by.

Self-portrait?

All self-portraits are subject to what we do or do not know about an artist. The absolute chaos of van Gogh’s life appears in his, the quiet wisdom of da Vinci in his. Or so we think. Whether we have much or little knowledge (which is often dependant on the passage of time), we will nevertheless be tempted to project the perceived emotional & mental state of the artist onto the work. We can’t help it. We are desperate to apply a narrative to people we don’t know. Who can blame artists for trying to wrestle back ownership of their personalities & lives? Who wants to be misunderstood?

What I’d like to know: who is your favourite self-portrait artist?

If you were to ask me this ten years ago, I might have struggled to come up with a single artist - not even Rembrandt himself - preferring several & not wanting to be pinned down. Now however, I’ve made my (current) choice.

For sheer volume, a creeping sense of isolation & a sincere depiction of the apparent breakdown of the inner & outer self, I’m going for Finland’s Helene Schjerfbeck. In a variety of media & using a range of techniques, she depicted herself expressively & (hopefully) sincerely. Astonishing & often brutal in their honesty, her self-portraits expose the authentic artist’s need to try the new, to never stand still, to constantly evolve. In revealing herself throughout her life, she has revealed something of my artist self in middle age: the importance of the pursuit of truth.

Selection of Helene Schjerfberg's self-portraits

I’m irritated to find myself littering this blog post with brackets & questions but it’s simply because I don’t have answers & a lot of the time I’m guessing. I just think it’s an interesting subject. You can only hope to ever know yourself, no-one else, not really. & even then, as the art masters show us, it could take you a lifetime.

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