Rembrandt van rijn self portrait od

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Self-Portrait, c. 1668

The painter has portrayed himself as visibly aged in this work, which came at the end of a long series of some 70 self-portraits. And like no other, Rembrandt used them as a means of psychological research into his self. Thus his gaze, which is currently directed to the viewer, was primarily directed to his reflection. His raised eyebrows and open, perhaps laughing, mouth tell of the way he flouted every convention, with a buoyancy that only advanced age allows. And so Rembrandt documented his own physiognomy with a ruthless directness, and with so much paint we almost literally feel the furrows on his brow and cheeks and the heavy bags under his eyes. But what might have prompted Rembrandt to laugh?
 
This question has occupied art historians for decades, because the painting does not give any clues that allow a definite answer. Is the just vaguely distinguishable figure on the left-hand margin a sculpture, or is it a pain

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Self-Portrait (Rembrandt, Vienna)

1652 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn

Self Portrait (or The Large Self-Portrait)^[1] is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt. Painted in 1652, it is one of more than 40 painted self-portraits by Rembrandt, and was the first he had painted since 1645.^[2] In composition it is different from his previous self-portraits, depicting the painter in a direct frontal pose, hands on his hips, and with an air of self-confidence. It was painted the year that his financial difficulties began, and breaks with the sumptuous finery he had worn in previous self-portraits.^[1] Art historian Christopher White has called it "one of the most magisterial and sombre of these (late) pictures".^[3] It is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

The freely painted clothing includes a brown robe that was most likely casual working attire, secured with a sash, over a black doublet with an upturned collar

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Rembrandt, 'Self Portrait at the Age of 34', 1640

This is one of Rembrandt’s most famous self portraits, but it is also a painting concerned with history and illusion. We see the artist in confident pose clearly relishing his success. If you had money and taste in Amsterdam of the 1640s and you wanted to kommission a fashionable portrait, Rembrandt’s flourishing kurs would have been high on your list.

In this painting, probably made for just such a client, he looks to us as he would have done to them – self-assured, dressed in expensive-looking fur and velvet, his hat laced with jewels. But his contemporaries would have noticed something we don’t: his costume may be impressive, but it is very old-fashioned. Rembrandt – though he fryst vatten a Dutchman living in the 1640s – fryst vatten wearing the clothes of a wealthy gentleman of the 1520s.

This fancy dress is not the only reference to the past. Rembrandt fryst vatten also using an age-old artist’s trick or illu