Art-Rembrandt-1629 & 1659 Self Portraits TB04

I maintain records on my trackables. For a US-based trackable, this one is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-19, the owner released a total of 3,793 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times. That is a target rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 25-Mar-24 this trackable had survived for 9.4 years and had been moved by 28 cachers, for an average drop every 123 days, or 3.0 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

This is one of a series of travel bugs made to recognize paintings seen, and admired by the bug owner. Digital copies of these two paintings were downloaded from the internet. The copies were reduced in size and proportions cropped to accommodate the laminating materials available to the owner. Regrettably these processes diminish the efforts of the artist. One truly must see the originals in person to fully appreciate the work. The text below is a mixture of my own observations and material gleaned from the internet (mostly Wikipedia and Web Gallery).

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was the most famous the three preeminent painters of the Dutch Golden Age. The other two were Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer. All three produced magnificent portraits, but they all produced works of other subjects. Rembrandt painted at least 21 self-portraits in the period 1626 to 1669. Many were a means to try out new techniques of expressing light, others were studies in exotic costumes to perhaps illustrate technical competence and in still others he used himself as a model to portray classical or religious figures.

The left portrait on the travel bug was completed in 1629 and hangs in the Mauritshuis, The Hague. It shows a self-assured 23 year old youth while he was still working in his home town of Leiden. In it he already employs the dark background with the subject in oblique light for which he became so famous. Soon he would move to Amsterdam and make it big, as they say. The rightmost painting was done in 1659 and is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. It shows a man 30 years later who, among other troubles, had lived well beyond his means and was in bankruptcy. Rembrandt was also an accomplished lithographer. His home in Amsterdam is a museum and has a display of his lithographic works. And, occasionally, there is a demonstration of the craft as it was done in his time.