(re)Acting Rembrandt
“E questo? Ce lo siamo perso?” An Italian woman is saying to her travel companions in the shop of the National Gallery of Ireland. Standing nearby and thinking I might be of some help, I give myself permission to eavesdrop on the group’s conversation. What they are puzzling about is how they managed to miss Rembrandt’s self-portrait - the artwork that is getting the lion’s share of the attention from almost all those entering the shop. As they keep debating standing close to the gifts that accompany the exhibition ‘Dutch Drawings: highlights from the Rijksmuseum’ (mostly inspired by the afore mentioned artwork), I start to think they might have overlooked it altogether. Then as well, they are failing to notice the exhibition catalogue displayed in the same section.
The catalogue focuses on 16 of the 48 artworks featured in the exhibition open until November the 6th in the Print Gallery of the National Gallery of Ireland. Produced by 31 artists exploring a wide range of topics – from studies of plants and animals to portraits, architecture, landscape, and events such the departure of Charles II for England and the passing of a comet – the drawings are grouped thematically. Rembrandt’s self-portrait is exhibited in the last room which displays examples of how artists of the so-called ‘Golden Age’ used to be trained or trained themselves to draw.
Practising how to capture facial expressions, Rembrandt drew this small (it’s just a little bit bigger than a stamp) but extremely detailed etching when he was in his early twenties. In his long career he went on to produce almost eighty self-portraits with. A taste of what the Dutch artist could do with his face can already be admired in this early work.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Self-Portrait in a Cap, Wide Eyed and Open Mouthed, 1630. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
The importance of seeing artworks in real life cannot be overstated. Of course, that doesn’t apply only to oil paintings whose impasto and brushstrokes all disappear in a flat digital image. Drawings too don’t have a smooth surface. What’s more, drawings and etchings display such a subtle gradation of tones that getting one wrong during the process of reproduction can make all the difference. Rembrandt’s etching is a case in point as I believe reproductions don’t do justice to the eyes. But then how could they? Those eyes are live, and you need to go to the National Gallery and see it for yourself!
The whole face has a life. Showing the whites of the eyes and opening the mouth in disbelief, Rembrandt’s face is acting. Or better re-acting. It’s as if I gave him a start coming from behind the corner, and he had exclaimed ‘Goodness! You gave me quite a turn, creeping up like that!’
The etching has been given the purely descriptive title of Self-Portrait in a Cap, Wide Eyed and Open Mouthed but, as Laura Cumming suggested in her book ‘A face to the world. On Self-portraits’ it might well have been called Shocked to See You.
Moving closer to the group of Italians still browsing the shop of the National Gallery of Ireland, I quickly get into a friendly conversation with them. It turns out they did have missed the Print Gallery. Unfortunately, despite all my efforts to convince my fellow Italians that the exhibition was worth the extra time, I found them more interested in picking my brain about a good spot where to have a bite for lunch.
