Focus on this artwork and explain the Process.
Less finished than many other self-portraits by Rembrandt, the rich expressiveness of brushwork, especially in the face, has merited attention. In some passages the manipulation of pigment appears independent of the forms being described. For Rembrandt researcher Ernst van de Wetering "The paint seems to have been applied, as it were, with a shaving brush". Although the painting's attribution has been questioned due to its freedom of execution, it is likely that Rembrandt chose to leave the canvas at an intermediate stage of development, for x-radiographs have revealed that other portraits by his hand have thickly applied passages that were subsequently worked over with thinner, more refined touches of paint. The palpable sense of plastic form in the face of Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar is the result not of careful transitions of value and color, but rather, of the textural vibrancy of the brushwork.For all the rough dynamism of the painting's surface, there is no compromise in the illusion of atmospheric quality, as some passages are painted to appear in sharper focus, while others are less so; often this is the result of the variation between areas of densely impasted paint and those composed of blurred brushstrokes. The relief of the paint creates reflections of light that simulate the tactile nature of flesh. Strokes of thick paint, warm in tone, pool up to represent areas of reflected light on the forehead, nose, and cheek. Adjacent to these passages, at the temple, around the furrows of the right eye and the wing of the nostril, are interstices of green-gray underpainting. The right eyeball is painted with a series of transparent glazes, atop which is placed a drop of white lead pigment for the highlight. This eye is surrounded by a complex variety of brushwork: the brow is formed by an uneven series of strokes; a single stroke designates the fold above the upper lid; the skin above the cheek is molded with a rounded brush; the wrinkles at the corner of the eye are denoted by a stroke of wet paint dragged over a dry underpainting. A blunt object, likely a brush handle, was used to accent a wrinkle beneath the eye, and to score into the wet paint of the hair, creating sharp curls against which the broader passages of hair recede.The practice of surface variation as a means of illusionism--"kenlijkheyt", or perceptibility—was understood by some of Rembrandt's contemporaries. Even so, the dramatic differences between the paint application in the face and passages of the drapery and background are unusual for a late self-portrait. The overall impression is that of a complete work, one that presents the subject as marked by experience yet ultimately resolute in dignity.
canvas Rembrandt Ernst van de Wetering self-portraits by Rembrandt