Rembrandt painted many self portraits throughout his life.
The artist's self portrait is as individual as the artist painting it. However, despite the individuality of these paintings and drawings, artists use several common elements to serve as backgrounds for their works. If well-selected, the background sends as much of a message about the artist painting the portrait as the face of the artist does.
Purpose
Artists paint self portraits for a variety of reasons. For some, a self portrait represents a chance to paint and draw the face without having to pay a model's fee. For others like Rembrandt and Picasso, the self portrait stood for more than that. One of Pablo Picasso's most famous self portraits came from his Blue Period. This period for Picasso indicated that he was moving into a different direction and establishing an identity of his own as an artist. Even more than Picasso, Rembrandt painted many self portraits throughout his life. According to the Rembrandt Van Rijn website, Rembrandt's many portraits represent not only the self-expression that Picasso's Blue Period portrait did, but also intense self reflection over the course of many years. This self reflection included visual musings on the ideal self, as a narrative and as a metaphor. The background that the artist chooses in each of these cases depends on the message he's trying to convey through the work as Picasso's and Rembrandt's work demonstrate.
Plain
Sometimes the most telling background for a self-portrait is no background or rather one that just features a color that highlights the artist standing in front of it. Picasso painted his Blue Period portrait in front of a blue background --- a trademark color for him during this phase of his artistic development. Although an artist chooses a plain background, it doesn't necessarily mean bland. Sometimes the color itself is chosen, because it conveys a specific message. According to color theory, all colors have some meaning. An artist with an understanding of how color affects the viewer psychologically will select a color for the background of a self-portrait with this in mind.
The Artist's Studio
The artist in his element offers one of the most interesting backdrops for a self portrait. Artists like Norman Rockwell and Jack Vettriano have painted themselves in their studio working on a painting. These portraits give the viewer a glimpse into the private world of the artist. The view of the studio depends on the artist and what they want to portray in their self portrait, which means the studio could be neat and orderly or just bordering on chaos. Additionally, as in the case of Rockwell's triple self portrait, it gives the artist a chance to show off some of his artistic influences; this self portrait features the self portraits of artists like Rembrandt as well as Van Gogh.
Metaphor
Metaphor isn't limited to just prose. The artist painting the self-portrait has the option of playing around with visual metaphor and symbolism in her work. The background of the self-portrait provides visual clues about some event or theme that was important to the artist at the time. One of the masters of self portrait as a metaphor was Frida Kahlo, who put her own face into her paintings. She stood in front of a variety of backdrops, including in front of a jungle with monkeys and turbulent waves of a symbolic sea. Kahlo herself suffered a serious accident, which inflicted her with pain for the remainder of her adult life. For example, it was in "The Broken Column" that Kahlo put herself in front of the barren desert and portrayed herself in the nude from the waist up with a broken column in place of her backbone. The backgrounds of these self portraits give other artists clues about use visual elements in the backgrounds of their paintings to convey metaphorical meaning in their work.
