Rembrandt produced approximately 80 self-portraits during his long artistic career, half of them painted, the others drawn or etched. Here he shows himself at the height of his success, before bankruptcy and bereavement lent his self-portraits a more melancholy and introspective demeanor. X-ray photography has revealed an earlier self-portrait beneath the current image, which was either left unfinished or partially scraped away before the panel was reused a decade later.

Cat. 15