In this self-portrait, he wears a cap of a striped material that was then considered typically Oriental and must have given the depiction a somewhat exotic character. The beret, too, was an article of clothing that was no longer worn in the seventeenth century, yet the impact made by Rembrandt’s self-portraits ensured that this head-covering became a typical article of clothing for artists. In this way he placed himself outside his own time, as it were.
We usually see him in historicising dress, the elements of which are borrowed from sixteenth-century fashions. The painting is unerringly executed in the free, expressive style that is characteristic of his late period.Ĭostume is a very important aspect of Rembrandt’s self-portraits, in which he seldom wears contemporary formal clothing.
#Rembrandt portraits full
Artistically, however, Rembrandt demonstrated that he was still full of energy and brimming with inspiration. This painting from the Mauritshuis is perhaps the last, since he seems slightly older here than in the other two. There are no fewer than three known self-portraits dated 1669, the year of his death. His face became more deeply furrowed, his cheeks more sunken, his chin flabbier and his hair greyer. Rembrandt’s self-portraits provide unique testimony to the way his appearance changed over the years, from his youth in Leiden to his death in Amsterdam. Those who bought his self-portraits had the advantage of acquiring not only the likeness of a famous man, but also an example of his legendary art.
Apart from the drawings, Rembrandt’s self-portraits were probably all intended for sale. In his self-portraits, Rembrandt casts himself in roles as diverse as beggar, soldier, Oriental, Paul the Apostle, contemporary artist and the Greek painter Zeuxis. We know some eighty self-portraits by his hand: nearly forty paintings and forty etchings and drawings. In every phase of his career, he drew, etched and painted his own likeness. No other seventeenth-century Dutch artist portrayed himself as often or in as many different ways as Rembrandt.
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