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THE ART OF THE PORTRAIT

The Portrait Society of America intriguing. Today, we call them “selfies,”
as though it is this new idea, but looking
Chairman’s Letter back almost 350 years ago, a young artist
of 17 years of age began building a career
Selfies and painted his first “selfie” at the age
of 22. Starting out painting portraits
of wealthy citizens, he later went on to
expand his oeuvre to include religious-
themed works and etchings of the Dutch
n our computer-oriented culture, we Almost all cellphones are now equipped landscape. However, many believe that the
Iare awash in images. Every day our with cameras as powerful as ones that greatest contribution came from the lasting
eyes process hundreds, if not thousands of just a few short years ago were used only impression he left through some 90 self-
images. The information technology age has by professionals. With this advancement, portraits, paintings and etchings that span
radically expanded our access to anything everyone has become a photographer. his life from the beginning of his career in
and everything. So the question is, how can We find the temptation to turn the lens the 1620s to the last year of his life in 1669.
an artist’s work have any influence on such a on ourselves irresistible because having a These works redefined the meaning of the
crowded stage? way to see ourselves from the outside is so self-portrait and brought him such fame and
honor we only need to refer to him by his
first name, Rembrandt.
The ninth of 10 children, born to an
economically comfortable family, his father
was a fifth-generation windmill operator
and his mother, the daughter of a baker. The
country in which he lived was at the close of
the 30-year war of independence with Spain
and then Netherlands entered what has been
called the “Dutch Golden Age,” a period of

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait in a Velvet Beret, 1634,
oil, 58.3 x 47.4 cm. Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
Rembrandt, Self-portrait with beret, wide-
eyed, 1630, etching, 50 x 45 mm. Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam

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