Saturday, July 13, 2024

Mirror Images - I

Elena Anguissola
Self Portrait as Blessed Osanna Andreasi
ca. 1556
oil on panel
Galleria Borghese,Rome

Rembrandt
Self Portrait with Shaded Eyes
1634
oil on panel
Leiden Collection, New York

Paulus Moreelse
Self Portrait
ca. 1634-35
oil on panel
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Pieter van Laer
Self Portrait with Scene of Sorcery
ca. 1635-37
oil on canvas
Leiden Collection, New York

Jacob Adriaensz Backer
Self Portrait as Shepherd with Flute
1637
oil on panel
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Govert Flinck
Self Portrait
1643
oil on panel
Leiden Collection, New York

Pieter Verelst
Self Portrait
ca. 1645-50
oil on panel
Leiden Collection, New York

Ferdinand Bol
Self Portrait behind a Parapet
1648
oil on canvas
Leiden Collection, New York

Gerrit Dou
Self Portrait holding a Portrait of his Parents
ca. 1649
oil on panel
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

David Bailly
Vanitas Still Life with Self Portrait
1651
oil on panel
Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

attributed to Cornelis Bisschop
Self Portrait
ca. 1653
oil on panel
Leiden Collection, New York

Gabriƫl Metsu
Self Portrait as a Hunter, dressing after Bathing
ca. 1654-56
oil on panel
Leiden Collection, New York

Arie de Vois
Self Portrait as a Hunter
1660
oil on panel
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Cornelis Bisschop
Self Portrait
1668
oil on canvas
Dordrechts Museum

Michiel van Musscher
Self Portrait in the Studio
1673
oil on panel
Leiden Collection, New York

Jan van Mieris
Self Portrait
ca. 1685
oil on canvas
Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

In the Ward

Old women come here to die. Nurses 
    Tend them with a sort of callous zest
That keeps their youthful patience, guarantees it
    In face of all they do not wish to be:
Shrunk limbs, shrunk lives, the incontinence.
    A woodland scene is hanging on the wall,
To rectify some lost connection
    With a universe that goes on shepherding its flock
Of fogs out there, its unkillable seasons.
    Dying, these old have for an ally still
That world of repetitions for, once gone,
    They are replaced incessantly. In the ward
The picture-glass gives back the outlines
    Of both old and young, in a painted
Sunlight and among the twines of trees.

– Charles Tomlinson (1974)