BySiddhi Jain

​June​ 22,​ 2020 ​(IANSlife)​ Rembrandt has been one of the most recognisable face in art. From sketches​ ​of an ambitious and self-confident youth of 22, to detailed and sobering self-depictions of a careworn and​ ​prematurely aged old man of 63, the Dutch-born artist recorded his own physiognomy in some 80 paintings, etchings and​ ​drawings, documenting his enduring captivation with his own image throughout almost the entire span of his​ ​career.
 

Almost all of Rembrandt’s painted self-portraits are by now in major museum collections, and only three​ ​remain in private hands. One of these, discovered and sold at Sotheby’s in London in 2003, is in the Leiden​ ​collection in New York, while another is on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Scotland. 

The third –​ ​​the earliest in date of the three, and in some ways the most revealing – will be offered with an estimate of​ ​£12-16 million (Rs 102-136 crore approx​) at Sotheby’s London on July​ 28​. 

Of intimate proportions and embodying​ ​Rembrandt’s unique mastery of self-examination, self-portrait, wearing a ruff and black hat, will star in the​ir evening sale.

The painting can be dated to a narrow window towards​ ​the end of 1632, thanks to the fact that it is signed with​ ​a form of the artist’s signature that he only very briefly​ ​employed, and also because dendrochronological​ ​analysis shows that it is painted on a panel cut from the​ ​same Baltic oak tree as another picture from that precise​ ​period​, Sotheby's said.​
 

Rembrandt’s unceasing journey of self-depiction forms a central part of his artistic output, but seems to have​ ​served a variety of different purposes, at different stages in his career. When starting out as a young artist in​ ​Leiden, Rembrandt tended to use his own face when exploring depictions of moods and facial expressions,​ ​whereas in the later 1630s he typically showed himself in elaborate fancy dress, and in subsequent decades​ ​concentrated increasingly on restrained and psychologically penetrating images.

Self-portrait, wearing a ruff and black hat, painted just after the 26-year-old Rembrandt set himself up in​ ​Amsterdam, falls intriguingly somewhere between the first and the second of these groups of works; here, the​ artist shows himself clad in black, with a white ruff and a felt hat, the crown encircled by with a hatband​ ​decorated with gold – a rather formal type of outfit that would typically have been worn by the sitters he​ ​depicted, not by Rembrandt himself. 

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Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in