Catalogue entry
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, 1606–1669
221 Self Portrait at the Age of Sixty‐three
, 1991
Extracted from:
Neil MacLaren; revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, The Dutch School 1600–1900 (London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1991).
Rembrandt, Self Portrait at the Age of Sixty‐three (No. 221) © The National Gallery, London
Signed and dated, lower left: … … t: f/1669.
Rembrandt (No. 221) © The National Gallery, London
Oil on canvas, 86 × 70.5 cm (33⅞ × 27¾).
Cleaned in 1967. Worn in the background and in the sleeve. The fact that only the ‘t’ of the signature remains makes it likely that a strip of about 3 cm. was cut from the left‐hand side of the canvas. Cusping of the canvas threads, visible to some degree in the X‐radiograph (Fig. 74), confirms this: the cusps at the right are more complete than those at the left.
Rembrandt, Self Portrait at the Age of Sixty‐three (No. 221). Composite X‐ray photograph . © The National Gallery, London
PENTIMENTI: There are two major pentimenti visible in the X‐radiograph.1 First, the turban was originally much higher and fuller and hung down more at the right; it also appears that it was entirely white, like the turban Rembrandt wears in the Kenwood Self Portrait.2 Later Rembrandt reduced it in height and width with broad strokes of background paint, and coloured the upper part brown. Secondly, the hands were originally painted open, and in the painter’s right hand was a single brush or mahlstick.
Discussion
The canvas is prepared with a single layer of brown ground, the main component of which has been identified as quartz (silica) tinted with a little brown‐coloured ochre. It is very similar to the ground type in Rembrandt Nos. 6300 and 6432.
The paint layers vary enormously in texture and thickness. The face, turban and collar are painted with very heavy applications of lead white, whereas the remainder of the portrait, including the hands, is painted much more smoothly.
The date, 1669, the last year of Rembrandt’s life, and traces of the signature were [page 1.337]revealed when the painting was cleaned.3 The background had been extensively overpainted. The Mauritshuis Self Portrait,4 in which the artist again wears a turban, is also dated 1669.
COPIES: A reduced copy (nineteenth century?) was in the Viscountess Wakefield sale, London, 8 October 1943 (lot 67).5 Another copy was in the possession of P. Smith, East Bergholt, in November 1960.6 Another, probably nineteenth‐century copy, inscribed: Gerretsz. van Rijn 1660, was in the collection of Mme M. de Rees, Cannes, in 1960.7 A copy of the head was in the collection of E. M. H. Os in The Hague in 1941.8
PROVENANCE: In the collection of William van Huls in London; at his sale, London, 6 sqq. August 1722 (lot 22),9 it was bought by Thomas Brodrick, MP.10 At the latter’s death in 1730 it passed with other pictures to his brother, Alan, 1st Viscount Midleton. In the Midleton collection at Peper Harow; 5th Viscount Midleton sale, London, 31 July 1851 (lot 78), 10 gns, bought for the National Gallery.
EXHIBITION: London 1988–9, No. 20.
REFERENCES:
General: Bode and HdG , vol. 6, No. 433; HdG No. 551; Bauch No. 339; Bredius, Rembrandt, No. 55.
In text:
1. For a full technical description, see London 1988–9, pp. 140–3. (Back to text.)
2. Bredius, Rembrandt, No. 52. (Back to text.)
3. G. Martin, ‘A Rembrandt Self Portrait from his last year’, BM , vol. 109, 1967, p. 355. (Back to text.)
4. 1977 cat., No. 840. Bredius, Rembrandt, No. 62. (Back to text.)
5. Canvas, 59 × 47 cm. It was in the collection of Sir Charles Wakefield by 1914 (label on back). (Back to text.)
6. Photo in RKD . (Back to text.)
7. Photo in RKD . (Back to text.)
8. Panel. Dimensions not known. Photo in RKD . (Back to text.)
9. ‘Rembrandt His own Picture.’ (Back to text.)
10. According to George Vertue, who saw it in 1722: ‘at Mr Brodericks Membr parliament a fine head of Rhinbrants own picture bought at Mr Van huls Sale’ (see Walpole Society’s vol, 22, 1934, p. 9). (Back to text.)
Abbreviations
- BM
- Burlington Magazine, London, 1903–
3 Other Abbreviations
- RKD
- The Netherlands Institute for Art History (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie), The Hague. Artists database, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague (online), 2000– (https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists)
List of references cited
- Bauch 1966
- Bauch, K., Rembrandt Gemälde, Berlin 1966
- 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 1969
- Bredius, A., revised by H. Gerson, Rembrandt, third edition, London 1969
- 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
- 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
- Martin 1967
- Martin, G., ‘A Rembrandt Self Portrait from his last year’, The Burlington Magazine, 1967, 109
- Mauritshuis 1977
- Mauritshuis, Mauritshuis: The Royal Cabinet of Paintings: Illustrated General Catalogue, The Hague 1977
List of exhibitions cited
- London 1988–9, National Gallery
- London, National Gallery, Art in the Making: Rembrandt, 12 October 1988–17 January 1989 (exh. cat.: Bomford, Brown and Roy 1988)
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 2, generated from files NM_CB_1991__16.xml dated 17/02/2025 and database__16.xml dated 16/02/2025 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 03/01/2025. Entries for NG212, NG221, NG830, NG871, NG990, NG1674, NG1675, NG2531, NG4503, NG6350, NG6442, NG6444 and NG64835 proofread following mark-up and corrected.
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- MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown. “221 Self Portrait at the Age of Sixty‐three”. 1991, online version 2, February 17, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DE5-000B-0000-0000.
- Harvard style
- MacLaren, Neil and Brown, Christopher (1991) 221 Self Portrait at the Age of Sixty‐three. Online version 2, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DE5-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 April 2025).
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- MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown, 221 Self Portrait at the Age of Sixty‐three (National Gallery, 1991; online version 2, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DE5-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 April 2025]