This spring, two portraits by Rembrandt van Rijn are visiting the Art Institute from the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.
In this focused exhibition, two rarely loaned works from the Norton Simon Museum join the Art Institute’s own iconic paintings by Rembrandt to demonstrate how the artist used props, lighting, and gaze to shape—and even transform—the identity of his subjects.
The paintings, Portrait of a Boy and Self-Portrait, join the Art Institute’s own Old Man with a Gold Chain and Young Woman at an Open Half-Door for a look at Rembrandt’s approach to portraiture—one that is decidedly more complex than it may first appear.
