![]() ![]() ![]() He gained considerable social and artistic status during his lifetime and accrued substantial wealth. ![]() There is no doubt that Jamesone’s portrait was painted as an instrument for self-promotion. Like Rubens, Jamesone depicts himself as a gentleman and wears a black doublet with a fine linen collar and cuffs and a fashionable beaver hat. His direct, confident gaze meets the viewer and parallels can be drawn between this portrait and the Portrait of the Artist by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, which has been in the British Royal Collection since 1623, the year in which it was painted and presented to Charles, Prince of Wales. Armour, an hour glass and a drawing of a skull and crossbones feature in the painting and, while they were probably studio props, they may also allude to the transience of life and Jamesone’s awareness of his own mortality. This self-portrait gives us some idea of what the interior of Jamesone’s studio may have looked like. By 1635 he had a studio in Edinburgh, and in both cities painted a variety of sitters including aristocrats, academics, lawyers and merchants. The group comprises seven portraits, including depictions of the reigning monarchs Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Jamesone’s wife Isobel Tosche, a seascape, a landscape and a mythological scene, identified as the Chastisement of Cupid.įollowing a five-year apprenticeship in Edinburgh to the decorative painter John Anderson, in 1620 Jamesone returned to Aberdeen where he set up a studio and focused on portraiture. Jamesone proudly presents himself as an artist – he stands close to the picture frame, holds a palette and brushes and gestures towards the paintings on the wall behind him, which were probably his own works. While earlier, more straightforward self-portraits by Jamesone exist, this one is his most ambitious and striking. Born in Aberdeen around 1589–90, he was the first native-born artist to enter a profession which, in early-seventeenth-century Scotland, was dominated by émigré painters from the Low Countries. This intriguing painting by George Jamesone is the earliest self-portrait by a Scottish artist in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |