Art Chowder May | June 2023 Issue 45 | Page 62

Rembrandt ’ s most famous portrait of the doctor was an etching that showed him walking down a stairway . The artist seems to have thought a painting would help as a preliminary study , so he produced a tiny , hasty portrait of the doctor looking at us as if surprised , but not displeased . The face stacks up with the finest of Rembrandt ’ s portraits , but the left arm on the banister looks curiously short — a defect the artist did not improve on when he moved on to the print .
The demand for miniature portraits ended with the invention of photography in the midnineteenth century . Artists in general had to find new ways to compete with the mechanical miniaturist . But miniatures have not gone away entirely . Some artists still practice the art .
“ Portrait of Ephraim Bueno ,” 1647 Rembrandt Van Rijn , 7 ½ by 5 ⅞ ”
hat was vital , because a fight could break out at any moment . Merchants and bankers loved pictures of peasants fighting among themselves . Brouwer painted many of them .
Among the Dutchmen who collected Brouwer ’ s work was Rembrandt van Rijn ( 1606-1669 ). He worked both large and small . His two largest paintings , “ The Conspiracy of the Batavians Under Claudius Civilis ” and “ The Night Watch ,” were both cut down , but the latter remains a mighty 14 feet wide . He could also be intimate , as in his portrait of the eminent Jewish physician Ephraim Bueno .
Europe ’ s Jews were always on the move . Expelled from Spain in 1492 , many of them settled in Portugal . A few generations later , a large community of Portuguese Jews fled to Holland , where they were at least nominally tolerated . Rembrandt lived in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam , where he made many friends , some of whom modeled for his biblical paintings . One of them was Dr . Bueno , who came from a long line of respected physicians .
The demand for miniature portraits ended with the invention of photography in the mid-nineteenth century .
One of them is Spokane artist Natalie Utley , who has worked large in the past , but has become intrigued with the idea of downsizing the old masters . “ My youngest daughters were both very interested in doll houses and miniatures ,” she says . “ So , just as a whim and something fun to mess with , I did the “ Mona Lisa ” in colored pencil and acrylic on a piece of wood cut . The size with the amount of detail was a challenge , but I couldn ’ t help but chuckle my way through it . From there I decided to try other recognizable masterpieces for enjoyment and silliness .”
That led to many others , including , but not limited to , Botticelli ’ s “ Birth of Venus ,” Vermeer ’ s “ Girl with a Pearl Earring ,” Edward Hopper ’ s “ Nighthawks ,” and Grant Wood ’ s “ American Gothic ,” shown here in Natalie ’ s hand . Masterpieces like these may become smaller , but in no sense are they reduced . To paraphrase an old maxim about actors and their parts , there are no small artworks — only small artists .
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