Het (Ge)zicht

Drawing was my favorite subject in primary school. I started painting when I was about 15 years old. At a young age my eyes deteriorated, what resulted in me needing glasses, or contact lenses of -8. Good eyesight is irreplaceable, especially for artists. What if Rembrandt was visually handicapped and resources like glasses were not available? How could I have painted, when glasses or contact lenses hadn't existed?

In this way I came to the subject of my painting 'sight' on intuition. Not knowing that the young Rembrandt also painted something simulair. The five senses on five panels, including 'the sight' (The Spectacles Seller, approximately 1624). In the 17th century, "to sell someone glasses" meant to fool someone.

I made a self-portrait that looks classically like a painting by Rembrandt, but with a contemporary twist. Het (Ge)zicht, which means: The Face(sight). The glasses give an alienating, distorted image of reality. I look carefully four centuries back in time.

Het (Ge)zicht, 2019, 50 x 70 cm, oil paint on canvas

Impression video

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