Arcadópolis
Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul
Rembrandt, 1661
What you see
Rembrandt appears from the waist up, a turban of pale cloth wound around his head and gray hair escaping at the sides. His body is turned slightly away, but his head swings round to face us, eyebrows raised and forehead deeply lined. At lower right he holds a thick manuscript of loose pages. The face and the paper are the two points of light.
His dark brown coat almost dissolves into the background, which shifts from greenish gray on the left to black on the right. The face is worked in short, dense strokes, the pages in looser touches. Watch for the faint signature on the wall at left, and the barely visible lines of writing on the pages.
About Rembrandt
Rembrandt van Rijn was the great master of light and shadow of the Dutch Golden Age, in Amsterdam. He painted faces so expressive that they seem to think and feel. He made about 80 self-portraits, like a diary of his whole life.
More by Rembrandt
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