An exhibition at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is exploring the affinities of two of the greatest painters of all time.

“By examining Rembrandt’s work—and his prints in particular—Degas discovered an approach to portraiture and self-portraiture that emphasized the expressive and technical potential of the form, an approach that was not encouraged in Degas’s traditional early training,” says the museum. “After enrolling briefly at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he soon began to turn away from standard academic models that emphasized clarity and line.

“In 1856 Degas embarked on a three-year trip to Italy to study classical sculpture and Renaissance painting. While in Italy, he saw a number of prints by Rembrandt in Italian collections and copied several in his drawings and sketch books, developing one of them into his own etching after Rembrandt.

“Inspired by the Dutch artist’s example, Degas made a series of self-portraits that explored a range of tonal effects, from subtle shading to dramatic contrasts of light and dark, just as Rembrandt had done as a young artist in Leiden and Amsterdam. This series of some forty paintings, prints, and drawings dates to Degas’s early years, between about 1854 and 1862, when the choice of a non-academic role model helped to define Degas’s identity as one of the emerging leaders of the French avant-garde.”

“Rembrandt & Degas: Two Young Artists” runs through February 5, 2012 at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 225 South Street, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 413-458-2303, clarkart.edu.

Franklin Einspruch is an artist and writer. He blogs at Artblog.net.