Rembrandt van Rijn. Self-Portrait (1629) Oil on canvas. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) painted more than fifty self portraits. They were the most complete and accurate record of the physical appearance of any human being prior to the invention of photography.
Rembrandt van Rijn. Self-Portrait (1629) Oil on canvas. Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague.
Rembrandt van Rijn. Self Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collarc (1659) Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Rembrandt van Rijn. Self-Portrait (1640) Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London.
Rembrandt van Rijn. Self-Portrait with Beret and Two Gold Chains (c. 1642-1643) Oil on canvas. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
Rembrandt van Rijn. Self Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar (1659) Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Rembrandt van Rijn. Self Portrait at the Age of 63 (1669) Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London.
Rembrandt van Rijn. Self Portrait ( 1669) Oil on canvas. Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague.
No sitter was more readily available than Rembrandt himself, seen through his own looking glass. The self portraits were certainly convenient, default subject matter, but they also had a commercial function. Rembrandt always kept several self portraits in stock. They were shown to prospective customers in order to reassure them of the artist's painterly skills, and to act as exemplars for portrait and genre painting commissions.
Especially in the final self portraits, there is no mask of flattery. Rembrandt bares his soul in a series of canvases unprecedented in their intensity and candor.
