Rembrandt up close!

On October 4, 1669 — 350 years ago — Rembrandt van Rijn (1606/07–69) died in his adopted home of Amsterdam at the age of 63. Already during his lifetime, he was one of the most important and successful Dutch painters of the Golden Age.

Over the course of his career, Rembrandt painted himself more often than almost any other artist: about ninety times in fourty years.

In the early six years of his career, in which Rembrandt worked as an independent artist in Leiden, he created about thirty self-portraits, including drawings, etchings, and paintings.

Especially Rembrandt's early self-portraits should really be seen as studies which the young artist painted in order to practice reproducing different facial expressions. These works of art allowed him to experiment with how to use light and shadow most effectively and achieve the best results by using different engraving and painting techniques. In this way, Rembrandt found his own expressive style as an artist, characterized among other things by the dramatic use of light and, typically, the application of paint in many different ways.

Rembrandt's early self-portraits not only served as studies, but also quickly became desired collector's items. With such a self-portrait, the buyer acquired not only one of Rembrandt's popular character studies, but also an authentic depiction of the face of the artist himself. This enabled the young artist to establish a »brand« on the market which he built up and continued to develop. To modern eyes, Rembrandt's approach is similar to that of Andy Warhol, whose portraits are also immediately recognizable to everyone, created in Warhol's typical style and occasionally also showing the artist himself.

The impression of a casual and spontaneous snapshot of Rembrandt's self-portraits is comparable to today's »selfies«. The author of the picture captures himself in a moment determined by him.

One such »selfie« eventually brought Rembrandt into space: In 2014, the »Young Self-Portrait« was sent on journeys and distributed worldwide via digital channels - and beyond: Alexander Gerst, working on the ISS in 2014, also took part in the campaign - and thus showed Rembrandt the stars.

Since July 2014, the »Young Self-Portrait« itself has been part of the universe: From a Bavarian DLR space station, the artwork was converted into a digital signal (a so-called »S Wave« between 2.6 and 3.95 GHz) and shot into space via a large radio antenna. Since then, this digitised version has been on its way to the end of our galaxy and will leave it in 52 years - only to embark on an eternal journey into the unknown in the endless vastness of space.

Rembrandt 350

On the occasion of the anniversary, Rembrandt's »Young Self-Portrait« is on display in the large Dutch Picture Gallery of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, alongside other works by the Dutch master. In this environment, Rembrandt's »selfie« acts as a link between character studies and historical painting - 300 years later still as fascinating as at the time of its creation.