Rembrandt was a dedicated self-portraitist all his life, and roughly forty self-portraits by him survive today. In this example, painted when Rembrandt was fifty-four, the artist was unsparing in depicting the signs of aging in his own face, building up the paint in high relief to convey his furrowed brow, the heavy pouches beneath his eyes, and his double chin. The recent removal of a synthetic varnish has revealed more of Rembrandt’s working method, showing, for example, how he flipped the brush to incise with its butt end the rough curls spilling out of his cap.
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Title:Self-Portrait
Artist:Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam)
Date:1660
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:31 5/8 x 26 1/2 in. (80.3 x 67.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
Accession Number:14.40.618
This picture bears an autograph signature and date of 1660. In the summer of that year, the artist turned fifty-four years old. The painting is in good condition, especially in the face, which reveals remarkable quality and candor. Originally, the bust and hat must have imparted a stronger sense of volume, consistent with that still found in the head.
Rembrandt painted the hat over a smaller cap. The flat impression now made by the hat is not, however, the consequence of that repainting (which occurred at an early moment in the course of work) but of natural darkening in the area. Some indications of folds and other modeling in the hat are discernible in autoradiographs. In the coat or gown, the gray ground shows through in areas and there are signs of heavy overcleaning in the brown paint layer. Thus, what might be taken as a very sketchy handling of the bust is misleading. While the painter's work clothes were indeed broadly brushed, with many strokes of color suggesting local highlights, the bust as a whole would have appeared well-rounded, with a consistent fall of light from the upper left, lending substance to the loose folds descending from the shoulders. The fullness of the material suggests a long gown, worn over a doublet with a turned-up collar and a red waistcoat.
Of the approximately forty painted self-portraits by Rembrandt known today, the three-quarter-length standing self-portrait in Vienna, dating from eight years earlier, could be considered the first in which he presents himself in work clothes and, at the same time, with a forthright and confident expression that evokes no other role than that of an artist in his studio. Variations on this theme followed during the 1650s, with the most analogous to this work being the so-called Small Self-portrait of the mid- to late 1650s in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, which is probably cut down; the self-portrait of 165[9?] in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh; the self-portrait dated 1659 in the National Gallery of Art, Washington; and, despite its more inclusive composition, the Self-portrait at the Easel, dated 1660, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
[2011; adapted from Liedtke 2007]
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Rembrandt / f.1660
duc de Valentinois, Paris; Admiral William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, London and Mayfield (until d. 1825; his estate sale, Christie's, London, May 13, 1826, no. 31, for £299.5 to Baring); Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton, London (1826–d. 1848); the Barons Ashburton, London (1848–89); Francis Denzil Edward Baring, 5th Baron Ashburton, London (1889–1907; sold to Sulley?); [Sulley and Co., London]; [Sedelmeyer, Paris, until 1909; sold to Altman]; Benjamin Altman, New York (1909–d. 1913)
London. British Institution. June 1829, no. 10 (lent by Alexander Baring).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1890, no. 145 (lent by Lord Ashburton).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of Rembrandt," January 21–March 29, 1942, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rembrandt," 1952, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portrait of the Artist," January 18–March 7, 1972, no. 8.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 10, 1995–January 7, 1996, no. 15.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met," October 16, 2018–October 4, 2020, no catalogue.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT, BY TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.
John Smith. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters. Vol. 7, London, 1836, p. 86, no. 210, as engraved by Schmidt; gives provenance information.
G[ustav]. F[riedrich]. Waagen. Works of Art and Artists in England. London, 1838, vol. 2, p. 273.
G[ustav]. F[riedrich]. Waagen. Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris. Vol. 2, Kunstwerke und Künstler in England. Berlin, 1838, p. 86.
"Visits to Private Galleries." Art-Union 9 (April 1, 1847), pp. 122–23.
[Gustav Friedrich] Waagen. Treasures of Art in Great Britain. London, 1854, vol. 2, p. 103, no. 2.
Wilhelm [von] Bode. Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei. Braunschweig, 1883, pp. 543, 585, no. 189.
Eugène Dutuit. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt. Paris, 1885, pp. 42, 61, 70, no. 168.
Alfred von Wurzbach. Rembrandt-galerie. Stuttgart, 1886, text vol., p. 56, no. 145.
Emile Michel. Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, and His Time. English ed. New York, 1894, vol. 2, p. 234, erroneously dates it about 1658.
Malcolm Bell. Rembrandt van Rijn and His Work. London, 1899, pp. 82, 143, erroneously as unsigned and undated.
Wilhelm [von] Bode with the assistance of C. Hofstede de Groot. The Complete Work of Rembrandt. Vol. 6, Paris, 1901, p. 13, no. 429, pl. 429, calls it "Bust of Rembrandt in a Greenish Coat" in text and "Rembrandt in a Brown Coat" in catalogue entry.
Emile Michel. Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, and His Time. [3rd ed.]. London, 1903, pp. 337–38, 431.
E. W. Moes. Iconographia Batava: Beredeneerde Lijst van Geschilderde en Gebeeldhouwde Portretten van Noord-Nederlanders in Vorige Eeuwen. Vol. 2, Amsterdam, 1905, p. 315, no. 6693-61.
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. 2nd ed. Stuttgart, 1906, ill. p. 338.
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. Ed. W. R. Valentiner. 3rd ed. Stuttgart, 1909, p. 562, ill. p. 411, as possibly a pendant to the portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels (now MMA 26.101.9).
Illustrated Catalogue of the Eleventh Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters . . . Paris, 1911, p. 30, no. 24, ill.
Handbook of the Benjamin Altman Collection. New York, 1914, pp. 26–27, no. 17.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. "The Rembrandts of the Altman Collection: I." Art in America 2 (August 1914), p. 361.
C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Ed. Edward G. Hawke. Vol. 6, London, 1916, p. 277, no. 562.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Rembrandt wiedergefundene Gemälde. Stuttgart, 1921, p. 126.
François Monod. "La Galerie Altman au Metropolitan Museum de New-York (2e article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 8 (November 1923), p. 306.
D. S. Meldrum. Rembrandt's Paintings. London, 1923, p. 199, pl. CCCXLII.
Alan Burroughs. "Rembrandts in the Metropolitan Museum." The Arts 4 (November 1923), pp. 270–72, ill.
Gustav Glück. "Rembrandts Selbstbildnis aus dem Jahre 1652." Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, n.s., 2 (1928), p. 328.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Rembrandt Paintings in America. New York, 1931, unpaginated, no. 145, pl. 145.
Alan Burroughs. "New Illustrations of Rembrandt's Style." Burlington Magazine 59 (July 1931), p. 10, pl. II-A, notes changes Rembrandt made to the composition.
A[braham]. Bredius. Rembrandt Gemälde. Vienna, 1935, p. 4, no. 54, pl. 54.
Otto Benesch. Rembrandt, Werk und Forschung. Vienna, 1935, p. 65.
Alan Burroughs. Art Criticism from a Laboratory. Boston, 1938, p. 155.
William M. Ivins Jr. "The Art of Rembrandt." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 37 (January 1942), p. 3, ill. on cover.
Introduction by William M. Ivins Jr. The Unseen Rembrandt. New York, 1942, pls. 19–20 (overall and detail).
Julius S. Held. "Rembrandt: The Self-Education of an Artist." Art News 40 (February 1–14, 1942), p. 28, ill. p. 14 (detail).
Wilhelm Pinder. Rembrandts Selbstbildnisse. Königstein, [1943], pp. 98, 100, 102, ill.
Margaret Breuning. "Metropolitan Re-Installs Its Treasures in Attractive Settings." Art Digest 18 (June 1, 1944), p. 5.
Josephine L. Allen. "The Museum's Rembrandts." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 4 (November 1945), p. 73, ill. p. 76.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "Rembrandt." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 11 (November 1952), p. 86, ill. p. 83, as "in the current Rembrandt exhibition".
D[irk]. Bax. Hollandse en Vlaamse Schilderkunst in Zuid-Afrika. Amsterdam, 1952, p. 22, mentions a copy after this picture in the Phillimore Museum [Gedenkmuseum Philmore Ives?] in Stellenbosch, South Africa (present whereabouts unknown).
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 82.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 3, ill. p. 32.
Jakob Rosenberg. Rembrandt: Life & Work. rev. ed. London, 1964, p. 98.
Kurt Bauch. Rembrandt Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, p. 17, pl. 332.
Fritz Erpel. Die Selbstbildnisse Rembrandts. Vienna, 1967, pp. 51, 186, no. 99, pl. 59.
Horst Gerson. Rembrandt Paintings. Ed. Gary Schwartz. Amsterdam, 1968, p. 503, no. 381, ill. p. 435.
Julius S. Held. Rembrandt's "Aristotle" and other Rembrandt Studies. Princeton, 1969, p. 96, fig. 7.
Paolo Lecaldano inL'opera pittorica completa di Rembrandt. Milan, 1969, pp. 119–20, no. 381, ill.
Horst Gerson, ed. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings.. By A[braham]. Bredius. 3rd ed. London, 1969, p. 551, no. 54, ill. p. 50.
Julius S. Held and Donald Posner. 17th and 18th Century Art: Baroque Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., [1972], p. 268, colorpl. 42.
C. M. Kauffmann. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings. London, 1973, vol. 1, p. 236, under no. 293, publishes a nineteenth-century copy.
Enrique Valdivieso. Pintura holandesa del siglo XVII en España. Valladolid, 1973, p. 354.
A. B. de Vries et al. Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis. Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands, 1978, p. 186.
Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen. The Rembrandt Documents. New York, 1979, p. 454.
Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, p. 344, fig. 612 (color).
Maryan W. Ainsworth et al. Art and Autoradiography: Insights into the Genesis of Paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Vermeer. New York, 1982, pp. 70, 101, pls. 43–46 (overall, x-radiograph, and autoradiographs), discusses the recovery of the preliminary sketch through autoradiographs.
Christopher Wright. Rembrandt: Self-Portraits. London, 1982, pp. 32, 44, no. 50, pl. 90.
J[osua]. Bruyn et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 1, 1625–1631. The Hague, 1982, p. 229, under no. A21.
Gary Schwartz. Rembrandt, His Life, His Paintings. New York, 1985, fig. 411 (color).
Pascal Bonafoux. Rembrandt: A Self-Portrait. Geneva, 1985, p. 151, ill. p. 119 (color).
Jan Kelch. Der Mann mit dem Goldhelm. Berlin, 1986, p. 27, figs. 20–21 (overall and x-ray).
Christian Tümpel. Rembrandt: Mythos und Methode. Königstein, 1986, p. 428, no. A73, ill. p. 368 (color), as by an anonymous artist in Rembrandt's circle.
Walter Liedtke. "Dutch Paintings in America: The Collectors and Their Ideals." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1990, p. 48.
H. Perry Chapman. Rembrandt's Self-portraits: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Identity. Princeton, 1990, pp. 87–88, fig. 125.
Pierre Cabanne. Rembrandt. [Paris], 1991, p. 152, no. 9, ill., dates it 1645.
Leonard J. Slatkes. Rembrandt: Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1992, p. 400, no. 266, ill. (color).
Jeroen Giltaij inRembrandt, His Teachers and His Pupils. Exh. cat., Bunkamura Museum of Art. Tokyo, 1992, pp. 161, 252, under no. 90.
Walter Liedtke inRembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, "Paintings, Drawings, and Prints: Art-Historical Perspectives."New York, [1995], pp. 76–78, 86, 89, no. 15, ill. (color).
Wayne Franits. "Young Women Preferred White to Brown: Some Remarks on Nicolaes Maes and the Cultural Context of Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Portraiture." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 46 (1995), p. 409, fig. 9.
Hubert von Sonnenburg. Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, "Paintings: Problems and Issues."New York, 1995, pp. 20–21, 25, 48, 54, 134, figs. 3 (view of Paintings Conservation studio), 14 (color detail), 15 (autoradiograph detail), 50 (color detail), 51 (x-radiograph detail), 167 (color detail).
William Grimes. "An Enigma Sometimes Wrapped in a Fake." New York Times (October 1, 1995), ill. p. H1.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 317, ill. p. 316.
Herbert Lank. "Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship." Studies in Conservation 41, no. 2 (1996), p. 124.
Michael Kimmelman. "At the Met with Susan Rothenberg and Bruce Nauman: Two Who Define Today Amble in the Past." New York Times (February 21, 1997), p. C26, ill.
Michael Kimmelman. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. New York, 1998, p. 121, ill. [text similar to Kimmelman 1997].
Marieke de Winkel inRembrandt by Himself. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 1999, pp. 65–66.
Edwin Buijsen inRembrandt by Himself. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 1999, pp. 202, 208, 211–12, 252 n. 219, no. 80, ill. (color).
Christopher Wright. Rembrandt. Paris, 2000, p. 330, figs. 337 (color detail), 342 (color).
Benjamin Binstock. "Review of Schama 1999." Art Bulletin 82 (June 2000), p. 362.
Ernst van de Wetering. "Thirty Years of the Rembrandt Research Project: The Tension Between Science and Connoisseurship in Authenticating Art." IFAR Journal 4, no. 2 (2001), p. 21.
Esmée Quodbach. "'Rembrandt's "Gilder" is here': How America Got its First Rembrandt and France Lost Many of its Old Masters." Simiolus 31, no. 1/2 (2004), p. 104.
Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), pp. 33, 35–36, 38, 70, figs. 37 (color), 40 (color, MMA Altman gallery photograph).
Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. ix, 164; vol. 2, pp. 549, 669, 687–93, 762, 778, 782, 797 n. 10, no. 157, colorpl. 157.
Blaise Ducos and Bruno Mottin et al. inRembrandt: Three Faces of the Master. Ed. Benedict Leca. Exh. cat., Cincinnati Art Museum. Cincinnati, 2008, p. 83, fig. 50 (color).
George S. Keyes inRembrandt in America: Collecting and Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 73–74, 84 n. 41, p. 134, fig. 68 (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 289, no. 240, ill. pp. 234, 289 (color).
Old Masters: Evening Sale. Christie's, London. July 6, 2017, p. 139, fig. 1 (color), under no. 30.
Engraved by G. F. Schmidt.
This work may not be lent, by terms of its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam)
1658
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