Self-portrait leaning on a stone sill.

During his lifetime, Rembrandt's extraordinary skills as a printmaker were the main source of his international fame. Unlike his oil paintings, prints travelled light and were relatively cheap. For this reason, they soon became very popular with collectors not only within but also beyond the borders of the Netherlands. It also explains why they were affordable to collectors through the centuries, from Bishop Ditlev Monrad, who presented this print to the Colonial Museum in 1869, to Sir John Ilott.

 

Rembrandt's etchings are remarkable for their high number of self-portraits (over 30 out of about 290). These are particularly collectible, perhaps due to the smaller number of states as well as the artist's compelling and powerful presence. Unlike his stately religious scenes, or regal, posed portraits of others, which exhibit his careful and calculating brilliance as an etcher, Rembrandt's self-portraits reveal him as an artist and a man. In them he assumes the role of the experimenting artist, approaching the most difficult of subjects - himself. These self-portraits are often described as ethereal and wistful for their notable contrasting areas of high and low etched space.

 

Rembrandt portrays himself here in Renaissance dress, taking inspiration from two 16th-century works, Raphael's Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, now in the Louvre, Paris, and Titian's so-called Portrait of Ariosto, now in the National Gallery, London. In Rembrandt's day both these paintings were owned by an Amsterdam collector, Alfonso Lopez, and in 1639, the same year as this etching, Rembrandt made a sketch after the painting by Raphael (now in the Albertina, Vienna). By following the example of Raphael, Rembrandt probably wanted to be seen as his student and artistic equal.

Rembrandt depicts himself fictionally, in the nostalgic garb of his Renaissance heroes - not just those from Italy, but with echoes of northern European self-portraits by artists such as Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden. He took this approach several times in the 1630s, and part of his intention was presumably to produce an image that was a worthy emulation and even improvement on its artistic ancestors, especially those in Lopez's collection that were widely known in Amsterdam.

Rembrandt's style is here rather detailed, and he brilliantly evokes the textures of his velvet cap and his hair, which to judge from other self-portraits of the period he has lengthened; it was normally trimmed at the level of his ear.

Te Papa's impression is the second of two states (both by Rembrandt), with a completed cap band and a new line defining the lower lid of the left eye. A related etching in our collection is Roland Hipkins's remarkably fine copy of  1922 (1983-0007-18).

References: New Hollstein Dutch 171, 2nd of 2 states; Hollstein Dutch 21, 2nd of 2 states,

See: British Museum, Self portrait leaning on a stone sill, http://culturalinstitute.britishmuseum.org/asset-viewer/self-portrait-leaning-on-a-stone-sill/ZwGKIIrarjrO_w?hl=en'

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art  September 2017