Saturday, March 21, 2015

Painting: Self Portrait By Albrecht Durer

This is one of the first works of art that I loved as a younger lad. I was 16 and part of a school trip to Germany with my Social Studies class. During our 10 day trip through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France (an amazing and important 10 days) we visited a museum. I think I saw this work hanging in the gallery. I later bought a small print card of it in the museum store. This work is a self portrait made by the artist Albrecht Durer in 1500 when he was 28 years old. I remember at the time I loved the detail in his face, hair and coat.

Buying this image might have been a precursor of my choice to eventually do portraits with a 8x10 view camera. Maybe loving this painting at 16 allowed me to photograph people with the view camera in my 30s and 40s. I wonder where I put that reproduction? I probably still have that card somewhere at mom and dads house.

Even today I still love the idea of the beauty of the human figure in this wonderfully detailed work by Mr Durer. Check out this artist on the linked Wikipedia page. All we see and experience in life leads us to the work we will eventually produce ourselves.

Wikipedia: Albrecht Durer

Self-Portrait By Albrecht Durer, Germany 1500
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