Murillo: The Self-Portraits

Nice exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on two self-portraits of Murillo and putting them into context.

The show marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Murillo and is probably the first time the two self-portraits have been together since they were sold by his son in 1709 as they had remained in the studio. Murillo was best known in his own life time for his portraits of which only 16 have been identified and 6 of them are in this show along with examples of his genre work which is better known now.

In the earlier self-portrait he shows himself as a gentleman rather than an artist. He has a handsome with long dark hair. In the later one he does show himself as an artist with the tools of his trade on the faux plinth outside the stone frame with his hand protruding over the edge of that frame. I loved the baroque stone frames which he paints around the portraits often chipped to show the passage of time.

The two genre pictures were lovely especially the one of two women ay a window using the Flemish idea of an illusionistic window. We do feel like we are looking in on them from the street.

Closes on 21 May 2018

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