Following the example of his master of choice, René Klarenbeek works in his CONTERFEYTER series, in addition to the large His(S)tories and the Metaphormorphoses, also on the production of portraits.
Commissioned portraiture has always been an interdependent collaboration between artist and subject. As a result of this process of one human depicting another one, a painted portrait thus becomes a unique blend, conveying just as much of the sitter’s appearance and inner self as it does of the painter’s mind, imagination, ambition and skills. Solidified in paint, it is a profound product of the painter’s close imaginative observation of the sitter. A painted portrait has an unique interpretive aspect and initiates an intensive and revealing engagement with the subject matter that other methods of depiction can struggle to replicate. And, moreover, as an one-off object it will easily outlive both its maker as well as the person portrayed.
Because all private and institutional commissioned CONTERFEYTER portraits are made in life-size, the dimensions of the painting will increase as a larger part of the sitter is depicted. That is why the traditional categories of HEAD, SHOULDER, CHEST, HALF LENGTH, KNEE and FULL LENGTH single portraits have their own corresponding dimensions.