For the last 500 years there has been a thriving market for portraits in Britain, from Holbein’s surprisingly candid portraits produced at the court of Henry VIII, to the graceful society portraits made popular by Thomas Gainsborough two centuries later. Today, the existence of galleries dedicated entirely to portraiture are perhaps the greatest testament to its enduring and universal appeal.
While the primary function of a portrait is to record the physical likeness of a sitter, it has long been acknowledged that an accomplished portrait should also capture something of a person’s inner spirit. The same can be said for self-portraits – a unique sub-set within the genre of portraiture and one that plays an important role in Royal Collection Trust’s latest exhibition, Portrait of the Artist.
The first autonomous self-portraits were produced in the fifteenth-century, although examples of artists incorporating themselves into the margins of illuminated manuscripts or inserting their faces into narrative paintings can be found earlier. Until the invention of photography, artists had to use mirrors to produce self-portraits. As a result, most self-portraits show the artist looking out of the picture frame, directly into the eyes of the viewer.
While the faces of some artists have been lost to us forever, other artists produced dozens of self-portraits during their lifetime. The most famous of these often-called serial-self-portraitists was Rembrandt, who produced approximately 80 self-portraits over the course of his career. Never one for flattery, Rembrandt’s self-portraits are frequently described as a visual diary, the artist recording his ageing features with often painful accuracy.
The sense of comradery (as well as competition) between artists has also presented ample opportunity for them to draw, paint or photograph each other. In comparison to self-portraits, portraits of artists are usually more intimate and unassuming. In c.1627, Rubens painted his friend and former workshop assistant, Anthony van Dyck. Unfinished in places, and probably produced from life in a single sitting, Rubens presents a uniquely personal portrait of Van Dyck whose skills as a portraitist would, within five years, have secured him the title of Principal Painter in Ordinary to Charles I.
Have you been affected, or inspired, by a portrait – or a portrait of an artist?
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Royal Collection Trust’s Portrait of the Artist exhibition is open at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace until 17 April 2017.
