Rembrandt produced at least forty paintings and thirty-one etchings of himself. He was right-handed, and most likely placed a mirror to the left of his easel so that his painting hand would not block his view. As a result, almost all of his paintings depict the left side of his face (reflected, it appears to be the right side). This portrait is unique: here, he faces the opposite direction. A single source of light highlights the artist’s face, shoulder, and clasped hands. The color palette is limited. The face is worked in dynamic brushwork with a high diversity of pigments, but the clothing and background are made up of more even strokes.
One contemporary notes that Rembrandt had an “uncanny ability to convey feeling through gesture and expression and through dramatic contrasts of light and dark.” Painted ten years before the artist’s death, his expression is somber, perhaps due to the financial failure that plagued him at the time. Art critics state that Rembrandt’s “view of himself reflects every stage of his inner development—experimental in the Leyden years; theatrically disguised in the 1630's; frank and self-analytical toward the end of his life ... yet full of simple dignity.”
