A nice biography of this artist’s life and work, focusing on on exhibition of his late works after he lost his wife, young mistress, and went bankrupt.
Film features his early historical work with mythical and biblical subject matter. The portraits of this exhibition are sprinkled throughout–each time one comes up, it is gone into extended, close-up detail.
I particularly enjoyed seeing someone demo his dry-brush etchings and another person demo his ‘free’-style late-painting techniques. Interesting to see his palette-knife scrapings and scratchings and his moshing chalk into white paint to add texture.
He is the great portrait master who was working in the 1600s after Shakespeare died and when Amsterdam had become prosperous. A critic toward the end of the documentary figures Descartes influenced the many self-portraits he has left us.
Overall, an impressive painter who is compared to Raphael, and was influenced by Ruebens and Caravaggio, but very much his own master. Recommended for anyone who wants to view a definitive portrait of the man and his work.