beside the easel

Self-Portrait, 1627 Born on January 9, 1590 in Paris, Simon Vouet was the giant of his era and is credited with introducing Baroque art to France. Coming from a family of painters, his precocious talents lead him to travel at quite a young age and in his early twenties he stopped in Italy and lived there for 13 years, longer than any other European artist at that time. His extensive travels within Italy allowed him to absorb all the major painters and styles with keen fascination, clearly inspired by the rich history of art that was lacking back in his native France. During this period he also became a "principe" at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and probably the first non-Italian artist to teach there. Vouet's talent and sharp business savvy led him to a very successful career and a pioneer of the Baroque outside of Italy. Above is his self-portrait, one of my very favourites for its spontaneity and freshness with skilled brushwork. Painted in his late thir...

I remember when I was younger I had photocopied self-portraits of all my favourite artists tacked to the wall in my basement studio...stern black and white faces looking at me...it made me feel safe, like I was surrounded by the All-Stars of Art, encouraging me silently to get over making mistakes and get past them. It was great support for a self-taught artist! And I needed all the support I could get back then. When we think of self-portraits by famous artists, the usual suspects come to mind...Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Kahlo, or maybe Velazquez or Da Vinci, and it is interesting to note that the Renaissance was where the self-portrait really became popular. With the idea of the artist as more than just a faceless member of a guild (as was the case in the Middle Ages) artists began to study nature and, with better quality mirrors, themselves. This was not a conceit. The publicity machine back then was not quite as state-of-the-art as today, and I'm sure most people could not attach a ...