Self-Portrait leaning on a stone sill, 1639

About the Work

In 1639 Rembrandt portrayed himself as a self-confident and successful artist. Opulently dressed, his beret worn at an angle, he leans casually on a stone wall, gazing openly at the public. He elegantly joins his great predecessors Raphael and Titian by quoting two of their paintings - Raphael's 'Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione' (today in the Louvre) and a portrait by Titian known as 'Ariosto' (London, National Gallery) - which Rembrandt saw in Amsterdam during the spring of 1639. From the Venetian role model, Rembrandt adopted the link between pictorial space and viewing space by means of the arm resting on the balustrade and, from the Roman portrait, the spirited attention focused on the viewer.