Bust of a Bearded Old Man, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633
Situated close to the picture plane, head turned sharply and eyes cast downward, the elderly man depicted in Rembrandt’s small, monochromatic oil sketch pulsates with life. With his lips slightly parted and his body seeming to rise with a passing breath, he occupies a world that is nearly the viewer’s own. Rembrandt’s vigorous brushstrokes animate the sitter’s psychological being and physical presence, making this bust-length image seem far larger than it is in reality. Light streaming in from the upper left falls on the right side of the elderly man’s face and models his three-dimensional form. His eyes are open and alert as they focus intensely upon something beyond the composition. Rembrandt emphasized the sitter’s emotional energy through the rhythmic interplay of grays and browns, adding ocher and white accents that appear on the subject’s wiry beard and the curly hair tumbling over his forehead. Both delicate and powerful, Bust of a Bearded Old Man encapsulates the profound humanity of Rembrandt’s finest works.)
Situated close to the picture plane, head turned sharply and eyes cast downward, the elderly man depicted in Rembrandt’s small, monochromatic oil sketch pulsates with life. With his lips slightly parted and his body seeming to rise with a passing breath, he occupies a world that is nearly the viewer’s own. Rembrandt’s vigorous brushstrokes animate the sitter’s psychological being and physical presence, making this bust-length image seem far larger than it is in reality. Light streaming in from the upper left falls on the right side of the elderly man’s face and models his three-dimensional form. His eyes are open and alert as they focus intensely upon something beyond the composition. Rembrandt emphasized the sitter’s emotional energy through the rhythmic interplay of grays and browns, adding ocher and white accents that appear on the subject’s wiry beard and the curly hair tumbling over his forehead. Both delicate and powerful, Bust of a Bearded Old Man encapsulates the profound humanity of Rembrandt’s finest works.
Bust of a Bearded Old Man is Rembrandt’s smallest known painting.
