Self-Portraits of Rembrandt, Cezanne & Gauguin It has been said th

Here, we will examine the self-portraits of three artists considered to be masters at their craft: Cezanne, Rembrandt, and Gauguin. In these self-portraits lies, not only glimpses into the lives of these men, but helps us understand their place in history, even centuries after the artists themselves are gone.

Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leyden in 1606 as the son of a miller. His family was fairly well-off, and Rembrandt is thought to have enjoyed a pleasant childhood. He attended university, and then undertook a three-year apprenticeship to a local painter, which gave him his technical background. When he was twenty-five, he moved to Amsterdam where he achieved success as a painter and married the wealthy Saskia van Uylenburgh who brought him position and money.

His self-portrait, completed in 1640, was painted at the height of his artistic successes in Europe. The pose resembles a self-portrait done by Durer in 1498. Rembrant leans on a windowsill in the portrait, his body is turned more towa

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pearances. The movement developed from the 1880's onwards. Paul Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence, France in 1839. He studied in the same school as Emile Zola and they formed a close friendship, which had a profound effect on the course of Cezanne's life. With Zola, he became involved in the revolutionary creative movement directed against the bourgeoisie and academism. From 1862 to 1870, he studied the painting of Courbet, Poussin and Manet among others, striving for realism. This devotion to capturing the realities of live can certainly be seen in his self-portrait, completed in 1876. Here, he captures light and shadow upon his face, rather than worrying much about brush strokes. The rich, dark colors are characteristic of Cezanne's work, and signal a change in his manner and style that was occurring at the same time that he was painting the portrait. Prior to this period in his work, he had been using mostly greys, browns, earth colors and heavy black shadows with the occasional flashes of brilliant color. His painting at the time was coarse in texture and often painted with a palette knife. During the time of this particular portrait, he worked with his friend Camille Pisarro, taking part in the first Impressionist exh
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