Painting (Portrait)

Description

Rembrandt Peale's 1831 portrait of Eleuthera du Pont, sister of Victorine, represents Rembrandt's mature style evident in his self-portrait of 1828. The clearly defined outline of her face and nose contrast with the soft focus of her fur shawl, which bleeds into the glowing background. Rembrandt was known for choosing his sitters' dress and accessories and deemed the fur shawl key to the picture's success. The portrait was completed after the artist returned from a two-year study trip to Naples with his son Michael Angelo, named, as he and his siblings were, after a European Old Master painter. Rembrandt's primary interest as a painter was with color, and this trip confirmed his lifelong interest in Italian painters of the past such as Raphael, Titian, and Correggio.