Self Portrait at the Age of 34

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REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, 1606–1669
672 Self Portrait at the Age of Thirty‐four

Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, 1991

Extracted from:
Neil MacLaren; revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, The Dutch School 1600–1900 (London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1991).

Plate 287

Signed, on the sill, bottom right: Rembrandt.f 1640 and inscribed below this: Conterfeycel.¹ The signature and date have almost certainly been repainted and the flourish between the t and f of the signature is a later addition. The word Conterfeycel seems to be by a different hand.

**Vol. 2, p. 472, 2**
Rembrandt (No. 672) © The National Gallery, London

Oil on canvas, arched top, 102 × 80 cm (40⅛ × 31½). (Marouflaged on to synthetic board, 1974.)

Cleaned in 1965. It seems likely that the painting was originally rectangular. Subsequently the top corners were removed to give an arched shape; later, the painting was attached to a new rectangular canvas.² A strip 8–9 cm. deep along the bottom edge is also not original.

There is considerable wearing in the background above the sitter’s head and some paint losses along the edges of the original canvas.

PENTIMENTI: Originally more of the shirt was visible at the bottom and the sitter’s left hand also rested on the sill; three fingers of it are visible in a radiograph a little to the right of the right hand.

The painting has been transferred to another canvas.³ Two observations confirm this: first, the paint surface has the sunken, wrinkled texture associated with a transferred painting which has subsequently been relined. Secondly, cross‐sections show a highly unusual layer of black paint or adhesive between the lower level of the conventional double ground and the present canvas. The original canvas had a double ground of a lower layer of coarse red earth, with on top a thinner fawnish‐grey priming of lead white, brown earth and a little charcoal; these layers survived the transfer. The technique is very smooth and meticulous. There is virtually no impasto: the effects are achieved with blended colour. Hairs at the back of the neck are suggested by scratching with a stylus or brush‐end in the wet paint.

[page 1.340]

Discussion

The painting is closely related to a self‐portrait etching (Fig. 76) made by Rembrandt in the previous year, 1639.⁴ In both the print and the painting there are reminiscences of Raphael’s Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (now in the Louvre) and Titian’s Portrait of a Man (National Gallery No. 1944; see Fig. 77), who in the seventeenth century was identified as the poet Ariosto. Rembrandt certainly knew the Castiglione, of which he made a rough sketch⁵ at or after the sale of Lucas van Uffelen’s pictures in Amsterdam in April 1639, when it was bought by Alfonso Lopez. He could also have seen the ‘Ariosto’ in Amsterdam, since it (or a copy) was in Lopez’s collection there at some time between 1637 and November 1641.⁶

**Vol. 1, p. 634, Figure 76**
Rembrandt, *Self Portrait.* Etching, 20.5 × 16.4 cm. London, British Museum , 1868,0822.656. (See Rembrandt No. 672.) ~~British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings~~ © The Trustees of the British Museum

**Vol. 1, p. 635, Figure 77**
Joachim van Sandrart, drawing after Titian’s *Portrait of a Man.* Black chalk, 225 × 180 mm. Paris, ~~Institut Néerlandais~~ , Fondation Custodia / Collection Frits Lugt . (See Rembrandt No. 672.) Paris, ~~Institut Néerlandais, Fondation Custodia (coll. F. Lugt)~~ Collection Frits Lugt, Fondation Custodia

Of the two, the Titian was the more important model. In both the Titian and No. 672 the body is facing to the right; the angle of the head and body is very similar; and the two painters make great play with the representation of the sleeve’s rich material. De Jongh⁷ has argued that Rembrandt is here self‐consciously emulating Titian’s portrait and that by showing himself in the guise of the Italian poet he is contrasting his own art of painting with Ariosto’s art of poetry and so taking part in the paragone debate.

The pose of the sitter and the half‐length composition were adopted by a number of Rembrandt’s pupils. Bol made a drawn copy of No. 672⁸ and used the composition for a Portrait of a Man painted shortly after 1640⁹ and for a number of what appear to be self portraits: the earliest, in Dordrecht, is dated 1646.¹⁰ The pose was also used by Govert Flinck in a Portrait of a Man of 1643;¹¹ by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout in a Portrait of a Man;¹² and by Aert de Gelder in a Portrait of a Young Man.¹³

COPY: A copy in reverse was in Anon. sale, Sotheby’s, 23 July 1975, lot 130 (£240) (on the reverse it has a label: ‘after L. M. BERWICK’, presumably the name of a nineteenth‐century English engraver who copied the painting).¹⁴ In the RKD there is a photograph of a mezzotint of a copy of the painting inscribed: F. Bol pinx. [sic] Wrenk Sculps.

PROVENANCE: In the collection of General Dupont, Paris; exhibited at the Exposition de la Société des Amis de l’Enfance, Paris, 1861, lent by General Dupont’s heirs, Comte de Richemont, Vicomte de Richemont and Baron de Richemont, from whom purchased in September 1861.

EXHIBITIONS: Paris, Exposition de la Société des Amis de l’Enfance, 1861 , No. 119; London, National Gallery, ‘Second Sight: Titian and Rembrandt’, 1980 ; London 1988–9, No. 8.

REFERENCES:

General: Bode and HdG , vol. 4, No. 256; HdG No. 550; Bauch No. 316; Bredius, Rembrandt, No. 34.

In text:

1. Until the 1690s the word conterfeycel (more properly, conterfeytsel) was the usual Dutch term for portrait. At the end of the century pourtrait (pourtret etc.) begins to appear but conterfeytsel was still frequently used until about 1720, though rarely seen later (see Bredius, Künstler‐Inventare, and Hoet, passim). (Back to text.)

2. The painting seems to have been cut to fit an arched top after painting and approximately 1 cm. of the paint surface has been turned over the arched top stretcher and tacked, the tack holes being visible. From the cracks in the paint along the fold lines of the section of turned‐over canvas, it seems most likely that it was put on the arched‐top stretcher after the paint had thoroughly dried out and was of some age. The edges all round are quite roughly and crudely cut. It seems reasonable to assume that it was cut down from an originally rectangular shape.
Subsequently the painting was taken off the arched‐top stretcher, the tacking margins flattened out and stuck down on a rectangular canvas which supplied the spandrels in the top corners and was also large enough to leave a narrow margin of exposed lining canvas down the side edges and a much wider band, about 8–9 cm. deep, along the bottom edge. The spandrels and the edges were then painted to match, some of this paint encroaching on the original. Both of these operations must have taken place prior to the acquisition of the painting by the National Gallery in 1861. Since then the entire can[page 1.341]vas (including the additions) has been relined and in 1974 marouflaged on to a sundeala support in order to flatten the wrinkled canvas. (Back to text.)

3. For a full technical description, see London 1988–9, pp. 80–5. (Back to text.)

4. White and Boon No. 21. (Back to text.)

5. In the Albertina, Vienna (Benesch, vol. 2, No. 451 and fig. 538). Inscribed in Rembrandt’s hand: (left) ‘de Conte/batasar de/kastijlyone/van raefael’ [sic]; (right) ‘verkoft/voor 3500 gulden’; (below) ‘het geheel Caergesoen tot Luke van Nuffeelen/heeft gegolden F59456:‐:Ano 1639’. Lopez is named as the purchaser by Sandrart, Teutsche Academie, p. 417 (note 1358). Judging by the relation of the inscriptions to the sketch, they were made at the same time as the latter; if so, the drawing is more likely to have been made shortly after the sale. (Back to text.)

6. There is a drawing after Titian’s composition by Joachim von Sandrart (Paris, Institut Néerlandais; signed, and inscribed on the reverse: ‘t’ Portrait van Ariotti’); the engraving after this, by Reynier van Persijn ( c. 1615–68), is inscribed: ‘Ioachimus Sandrart del: et excud. Amsterd: E Titiani Prototypo in oedi‐ bus Alph: Lopez.’ Sandrart was in Amsterdam from 1637 until after April 1642; Lopez’s ‘Ariosto’ was in Paris by November 1641 (E. W. Moes in OH , vol. 12, 1894, pp. 238–40). It cannot be established for certain that Lopez’s ‘Ariosto’ was the National Gallery picture but, even if not, Sandrart’s drawing shows that it was of exactly the same design. (Sandrart apparently also painted a copy of the ‘Ariosto’. Lot 154 of the Willem Six sale, Amsterdam, 12 May 1734, was ‘Het Pourtrait van L. Ariosto, door Sandrart, na Titiaan’; see Hoet, vol. 1, p. 418.) (Back to text.)

7. E. de Jongh, ‘The Spur of Wit: Rembrandt’s Response to an Italian Challenge’, Delta, Summer 1969, pp. 49–67; on this subject see also, A. Blankert, ‘Rembrandt, Zeuxis and ideal Beauty’, Album Amicorum J. G. van Gelder, The Hague, 1973, pp. 32–9; C. Brown, Second Sight ; : Titian and Rembrandt, National Gallery, London, 1980. (Back to text.)

8. Sumowski, Drawings, I, No. 142^х. Brush and grey ink; black and red chalk. 178 × 128 mm. Washington, National Gallery of Art (B–3984, Rosenwald collection). (Back to text.)

9. Munich, Alte Pinakothek, 1983 cat., No. 609. Canvas, 87.5 × 72.5 cm. (the female pendant is No. 610 in the catalogue). A. Blankert, Ferdinand Bol, Doornspijk, 1982, cat. no. 143, p. 144ff. (Back to text.)

10. Blankert, op. cit. , cat. no. 60 (dated 1646; Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht); cat. no. 61 (dated 1647; with Knoedler, New York, 1924); cat. no. 62 (Anon, sale, Sotheby/Parke Bernet, New York, 4 June 1980, no. 50); cat. no. 63 (dated 164(8)); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Inv. no. 55.28. Also influenced by No. 672 but less close in composition is the ‘self‐portrait’ type of which the best example is in the Springfield Art Institute, Springfield, Mass. (Inv. no. 42.02; Blankert, op. cit. , cat. no. 14). (Back to text.)

11. Panel, top corners rounded, 71 × 52 cm. Signed and dated on the left: G. Flinck f. 1643. Sir Berkeley Sheffield et al. sale, Christie’s, 16 July 1943, lot 106. J. W. von Moltke, Govaert Flinck 1615–1660, Amsterdam, 1965, cat. no. 434 (with its pendant, no. 435). The late Sir Charles Clore’s Charitable Personal Settlement sale, Sotheby’s, 11 December 1985, lot 62 (£154,000). With Colnaghi, London, 1986. (Back to text.)

12. See Rembrandt after Three Hundred Years, Chicago, No. 49. (Back to text.)

13. Krantz collection, Aachen. Canvas. Dimensions not known – see Blankert in Album Amicorum J. G. van Gelder, op. cit. , p. 38, note 18. (Back to text.)

14. Canvas, 98 × 80 cm. (Back to text.)

Abbreviations

OH: Oud Holland, Amsterdam, 1883—1972, The Hague, 1973–

3 Other Abbreviations

RKD: The Netherlands Institute for Art History (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie), The Hague

List of references cited

Bauch 1966: Bauch, K., Rembrandt Gemälde, Berlin 1966
Benesch 1973: Benesch, O., The Drawings of Rembrandt, 6 vols, second edition, London 1973
Blankert 1973: Blankert, Albert, ‘Rembrandt, Zeuxis and ideal Beauty’, in Album Amicorum J. G. van Gelder, eds Josua Bruyn, Jan Ameling Emmens, Erik de Jongh and Derk P. Snoep, The Hague 1973, 32–9
Blankert 1983: Blankert, A., Ferdinand Bol: Rembrandt’s Pupil, Doornspijk 1982
Bode and Hofstede de Groot 1897–1906: Bode, W. and C. Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of Rembrandt, 8 vols, Paris 1897–1906
Bomford, Brown and Roy 1988: Bomford, David, Christopher Brown, Ashok Roy, with contributions from Jo Kirby and Raymond White, Art in the Making: Rembrandt, London 1988
Bredius, Künstler‐Inventare: Bredius, A., Künstler‐Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, 8 vols, The Hague 1915–22
Bredius 1969: Bredius, A., revised by H. Gerson, Rembrandt, third edition, London 1969
Brown 1980: Brown, C., Second Sight: Titian and Rembrandt, London, National Gallery, 1980
Davies 1959: Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The British School, revised edn, London 1959
Davies and Gould 1970: Davies, Martin, revised by Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post‐Impressionists, etc., London 1970
de Jongh 1969: Jongh, E. de, ‘The Spur of Wit: Rembrandt’s Response to an Italian Challenge’, Delta, Summer 1969, 49–67
Hoet 1752/1770: Hoet, G., Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen met derzelver pryzen…, 3 vols, The Hague 1752 and 1770
Hofstede de Groot 1907–28: Hofstede de Groot, C., Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols (vols 9 and 10 are in German), London, Stuttgart and Paris 1907–28
Moes 1894: Moes, E. W., in Oud Holland, 1894, 12, 238–40
Sandrart 1925: Sandrart, Joachim van, Academie der Bau‐, Bild‐ und Mahlerey‐Künste von 1675, ed. A. R. Peltzer, Munich 1925
Von Moltke 1965: Moltke, J. W. von, Govaert Flinck 1615–1660, Amsterdam 1965
White and Boon 1969: White, C. and K. Boon, Rembrandt van Rijn, Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 18 and 19, Amsterdam 1969

List of exhibitions cited

London 1980: London, National Gallery, Second Sight: Titian and Rembrandt, 1980
London, National Gallery 1988–9: London, National Gallery, Art in the Making: Rembrandt, 12 October 1988–17 January 1989 (exh. cat.: Bomford, Brown and Roy 1988)
Munich 1983: Munich, Alte Pinakothek,
Paris 1861: Paris, Exposition de la Société des Amis de l’Enfance, 1861

Explanatory Notes on the Catalogue

SEQUENCE The paintings are arranged alphabetically according to the name of the artist or school.

ATTRIBUTION A picture catalogued under the name of the artist is considered to be by him. ‘Attributed to’ qualifies the attribution. ‘Ascribed to’ indicates a greater degree of doubt. ‘Workshop of’ or ‘Follower of’ are self‐explanatory. ‘Style of’ indicates that the painting is an imitation or copy painted after the artist’s lifetime. A list of attributions which have been changed from the first edition of this catalogue (published in 1960) is given on pages 510–13.

INVENTORY NUMBER The National Gallery inventory number is to be found to the left of the picture title.

MEASUREMENTS These are given in centimetres, followed by inches in brackets. Height precedes width.

RIGHT and LEFT These indicate the viewer’s right and left, unless the context clearly implies the contrary.

BIOGRAPHIES MacLaren’s biographical notes on painters have been expanded and brought up to date when there is no accessible and reliable modern literature. Where such literature exists, these notes have been kept to a minimum.

REFERENCES The bibliographical references, though selective, include publications which appeared before mid‐1989. References to books and articles which appeared subsequently and which the author considered to be of importance are referred to within square brackets but could not be taken into account in the catalogue entries themselves.

LISTS AND INDEXES At the back of this volume are lists of paintings acquired since the last edition of this catalogue and changed attributions. There are also indexes to religious subjects, profane subjects, topography, previous owners, years of acquisition and inventory number.

ILLUSTRATIONS The plates of the paintings included in the catalogue are in the second volume, together with all the signatures which could be reproduced. The comparative plates are included in Volume 1.

[page 1.xiv]

VAN ‘van’ has been used in lower case throughout in accordance with The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. The ‘van’ has been omitted for certain artists as is customary, e.g. ‘Jacob van Ruisdael’, but ‘Ruisdael’.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES ‘ op. cit. ’ may refer back to books and articles referred to under the artist’s biography (rather than in the particular catalogue entry).

CHRISTIE’S AND SOTHEBY’S Unless another location is mentioned, the sales referred to took place in London.

CLEANING The cleaning of paintings which took place before 1945 is not referred to, unless the circumstances were exceptional.

CONDITION All the paintings have been examined during the preparation of this catalogue. In many cases the condition is described, sometimes in considerable detail. If the condition is not described, the painting can be presumed to be in good condition.

PROVENANCE AND EXHIBITIONS There are separate headings for provenance and exhibitions in individual catalogue entries. In certain cases, when nineteenth‐century paintings were included in dealers’ exhibitions for example, these two sections have been conflated , .

VAN GOGH The National Gallery’s four paintings by Van Gogh (Inv. nos. 3861, 3862, 3863 and 4169) are not catalogued in this volume but in The French School by Cecil Gould.

CORNELIUS JOHNSON The one painting (Inv. no. 6280) in the National Gallery by Johnson, who was born in London of Dutch parents but moved to the Netherlands after the outbreak of the Civil War, is not included in this catalogue but in The British School by Martin Davies.

Explanatory note

This volume contains the illustrations for the catalogue of the Dutch School published in Volume 1.

The pictures and their attributions are discussed in detail in the catalogue; in this volume only the title, the artist (or attribution) and the inventory number are given.

At the end of the volume are plates of all the signatures that could be reproduced. In the interest of clarity some of these have been enlarged.

About this version

Version 1, generated from files NM_CB_1991__16.xml dated 14/10/2024 and database__16.xml dated 16/10/2024 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 14/10/2024. Structural mark-up applied to skeleton document in full; document updated to use external database of archival and bibliographic references; entries for NG6483, NG6458, NG830, NG4503, NG835, NG6444, NG212, NG54, NG221, NG672, NG1675, NG6350, NG990, NG2531, NG6442, NG871, NG1383, NG2568 and NG6522 proofread and prepared for publication; entries for NG1383, NG2568, NG54, NG5417, NG6458, NG6522, NG672 and NG835 proofread following mark-up and corrected.

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Permalink (this version): https://data.ng.ac.uk/087Q-000B-0000-0000
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Chicago style: MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown. "672 Self Portrait at the Age of Thirty‐four". 1991, online version 1, October 17, 2024. https://data.ng.ac.uk/087Q-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style: MacLaren, Neil and Brown, Christopher (1991) 672 Self Portrait at the Age of Thirty‐four. Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2024. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/087Q-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 23 November 2024).
MHRA style: MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown, 672 Self Portrait at the Age of Thirty‐four (National Gallery, 1991; online version 1, 2024) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/087Q-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 23 November 2024]