Rembrandt, Self-portrait with porget and beret, 1629
Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Clowes Fund Collection
From the museum website
In an exclusive showing only at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Rembrandt: Three Faces of the Master explores Rembrandt van Rijn’s self-portraiture by presenting a representative trio of paintings that trace the master’s enduring engagement with this genre. The exhibition features Self-Portrait with Gorget and Beret (ca. 1629, Indianapolis Museum of Art), Self-Portrait with Beret and Two Gold Chains (1642–43, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), and the Louvre’s Self-Portrait at the Easel (1660), a landmark portrait that has never traveled to America. The exhibition will also include three Rembrandt school paintings, as well as several self-portrait prints from the Art Museum’s collection.
This is a focused exhibition that seeks to address broader issues of identity and self-representation, while also refocusing attention on the formal aspects of Rembrandt’s art. Rembrandt remains a self-portraitist of unmatched power and sustained intensity, having painted his own likeness more than forty times over a span of four decades. While the paintings are, at one level, records of differing stages of the artist’s life, they are more accurately deliberate, constructed performances. It is this aspect of role-playing and self-definition—as both artist and subject—that the exhibition seeks to underline.
The exhibition builds on the CAM’s 2005 Rembrandt: Master Printmaker exhibition, the success of which proved that Cincinnati museumgoers have a special appreciation for Rembrandt’s extraordinary art.
Support
Presenting Sponsor:
Cincinnati Financial Corporation
The Cincinnati Insurance Companies
Contributing Sponsors
Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York
The Florence Gould Foundation
The Ruth A. and W. O. Mashburn, Jr. Foundation
The Netherland-America Foundation
A Friend of the Museum
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.