Rembrandt’s Large Self-portrait
“In this work painted the year his financial troubles began, Rembrandt faces the viewer in three-quarter profile, his hands on his hips, thumbs hooked in his belt. Earlier in his career the artist frequently depicted himself dressed in splendid costumes; in contrast, he here wears only a simple artists smock. The cool grey colouring and fastidious technique of Rembrandts early works are replaced by subtly layered, richly modulated scales of brown hues and thickly applied, unifying brushstrokes that hardly differentiate between clothes, hands and background. Only the face is emphasised by the powerful modelling of his brush and the deliberate use of light.” KHM
