REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn
(b. 1606, Leiden, d. 1669, Amsterdam)

Self-Portrait

c. 1640
Oil on panel, 72 x 55 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Catalogue number: Bredius 36.

Rembrandt's extensive oeuvre has been calculated at around 600 works, of which 60 are self-portraits. From 1629 until his death he depicted himself at every stage of his career, looking at himself with honesty and a growing self-analysis, during periods both of prosperity and of economic and personal crisis. This self-portrait is dated around 1643, the year after the death of his wife Saskia, at a time when Rembrandt's clients began to dwindle in number, a situation which did not recover. The artist depicts himself with a serious and meditative expression, looking directly out at the viewer. Against a dark background and dressed in a black coat edged with fur, the light is concentrated on his face, which it models in soft chiaroscuro.