HOME | DD

Description
oil on canvas / 20" X 24"

As Rembrandt was a Realist, the Impressionist-like palette of “The Man with the Golden Helmet” has always been suspicious to me. It’s too orange. There’s no blue at all.

I set out to repaint this image using what I believe would have been its original palette. My decisions were based on two primary factors:

(i) Rembrandt’s use of organic fillers to create texture. One example is flour, which Rembrandt would mix with his oils to create textured effects. Over time this organic material rotted, biasing the coloration with yellows and browns. I have reduced saturation from this part of the color spectrum to compensate for this effect.

(ii) The presence of Smalt, a type of Cobalt-infused ground glass that was used in the 1600s as a pigment to create blue paint. Three and a half centuries of exposure has virtually eliminated all blue hues from the original piece.

Description
oil on canvas / 20" X 24"

As Rembrandt was a Realist, the Impressionist-like palette of “The Man with the Golden Helmet” has always been suspicious to me. It’s too orange. There’s no blue at all.

I set out to repaint this image using what I believe would have been its original palette. My decisions were based on two primary factors:

(i) Rembrandt’s use of organic fillers to create texture. One example is flour, which Rembrandt would mix with his oils to create textured effects. Over time this organic material rotted, biasing the coloration with yellows and browns. I have reduced saturation from this part of the color spectrum to compensate for this effect.

(ii) The presence of Smalt, a type of Cobalt-infused ground glass that was used in the 1600s as a pigment to create blue paint. Three and a half centuries of exposure has virtually eliminated all blue hues from the original piece.