Description:Incredibly revealing and extremely intimate, this self-portrait of 1648 allows us to take a deeper look into the character and persona of Rembrandt van Rijn. Here, he depicts himself as an older, wiser man compared to his more famous 1639 portrait in which he was extravagantly dressed, had a longer beard, and a more flagrant pose. With this work, Rembrandt simply works with what he sees in the reflection of a mirror facing him: a older, more introspective man that has experience life.
According to Christopher White, "Earlier he had depicted himself from the outside inviting us to be his spectators, but now he studies himself from within, and we feel ourselves intruders in this frank and intimate self-analysis in a mirror, in which one is as near to reading the mind as is humanly possible in a visual medium. The look is piercingly powerful and we see the man himself and not his expression" (132-3) .
Created in 1648, this is a Nowell-Usticke intermediate State II/III (of VIII) impression, after the shading of the right hand and prior to the shading of the left cuff; a Hind State IV (of V) ; Biörklund State IV (of V) ; Boon & White State IV (of V) . There are areas of heavy burr, especially in the cloak and also some slight burr in the book on the desk. Margins have been trimmed along the plate; plate mark remains clearly defined.
Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
It is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that I will enclose with the sale of the work) :
1) Nowell-Usticke, G.W., Rembrandt's Etchings, 1988. Listed as catalogue raisonné no. B 22.
2) Hind, Arthur, A Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etchings, 1967. Listed as catalogue raisonné no. 229.
3) Biörklund, George, Rembrandt's Etchings: True and False, 1968. Listed as catalogue raisonné no. BB 48-A.
4) Schwartz, Gary, Rembrandt: All the etchings reproduced in true size, 1977. Listed as catalogue raisonné no. B 22.
5) White, Christopher and Boon, Karel, Rembrandt's Etchings, Vol. 1, 1969. Listed as catalogue raisonné no. B 22.
6) White, Christopher and Boon, Karel, Rembrandt's Etchings, Vol. 2, 1969. Listed as catalogue raisonné no. B 22.
7) Boon, K.G., Rembrandt The Complete Etchings, 1965. Image listed as plate 213 with full size details.
8) White, Christopher, Rembrandt as an Etcher, 1969, Vol. 1. Discussed on pages 132.
9) White, Christopher, Rembrandt as an Etcher, 1969, Vol. 2. Listed as plate 185.
10) Dickey, Stephanie S. Rembrandt: Portraits In Print, Philadelphia, 2004. Listed and illustrated as the cover image.
About the Framing:
Brilliantly framed with museum quality archival materials, this work is float mounted in an ornate antique gold frame. The intricately sculpted moulding with vegetal and arching shapes compliments the linear quality of this work. Completed with white linen wrapped mattes and a matching gold inner fillet, this work is set behind archival Plexiglas. All materials are conservation minded.
