Comparing Rembrandt van Rijn and Edgar Degas is comparing the Dutch Golden Age with 19th-century France. But, despite the 200 years between them, it's easy to see the connections between the artists. Especially now, as portraits by both Rembrandt and Degas are on display at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, side by side.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) dropped out after one year of art school, leaving Paris for Italy. Travelling in Rome and Florence he studied and copied the works of the great masters. The young Degas is known to have studied - and been inspired by - Rembrandt's self-portraits. 

Shadows
The young Degas was keen to break with the stuffy tradition of the art academy where every detail of a painting had to be worked out in precise detail. You can see that approach in the self-portrait Degas painted at the end of his first year as a student. 

His style later became looser. He portrays himself with his face in the shadows; skimming light falls across one cheek from behind him; his clothing is casually painted, barely identifiable; even his eyes are in shadow. The fact that Degas took this approach to his self-portrait is not unusual; painters often take greater risks with self-portraits as they are intended primarily as study objects and not for sale. 

Etchings
The young Rembrandt's self-portraits display the same casual style. By the age of 22 he had already been working as an independent artist for a couple of years. 

Degas hardly came across any paintings by the Dutch master during his travels in Italy but he did study his etchings: both originals and reproductions in books. Copies of Rembrandt's work can be found in his sketchbooks. Degas would later develop into one of the great French impressionist painters. 

The portraits and self-portraits in the exhibition not only show the similarities and differences between the styles of the two great painters, but also their personalities. Rembrandt is a little bolder, more uninhibited, self-assured. Degas looks rather shy by comparison. It's almost as if you are meeting them face to face. 

Rembrandt & Degas: Two Young Artists can be viewed at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, until 23 October 2011. It will then move to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, from November 2011 to February 2012 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, from February to May 2012.

(imm/ae)