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Rembrandt, 'Self Portrait at the Age of 63', 1669
About the work
Overview
This is one of three self portraits Rembrandt made just before his death in 1669. About 80 survive from his 40-year career, far more than any other artist of his time. He painted them for different reasons – to practise different expressions, to experiment with lighting effects, and also to sell to wealthy patrons and collectors.
In this one, Rembrandt is preoccupied with depicting the textures and colours of his own ageing face. The sagging fold beneath his right eye is made with the swirl of a heavily loaded brush. The blemishes on his forehead are formed of blotches of coagulated paint.
Many later writers and artists have interpreted this as intense, unflinching, existential honesty: Rembrandt coming to terms with the approach of death. But in the seventeenth century people had different ideas about self-analysis and how the mind works than we do now. Rembrandt’s motives may have been more straightforward – driven less by soul-searching, and more by a professional fascination with the challenges of his art.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Self Portrait at the Age of 63
- Artist
- Rembrandt
- Artist dates
- 1606 - 1669
- Date made
- 1669
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 86 × 70.5 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1851
- Inventory number
- NG221
- Location
- Room 22
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 17th-century Dutch Frame
Provenance
In the collection of William van Huls in London; at his sale, London, 6 sqq. August 1722 (lot 22), it was bought by Thomas Brodrick, MP. 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.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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2014Rembrandt: The Late WorksThe National Gallery (London)15 October 2014 - 18 January 2015Rijksmuseum Amsterdam12 February 2015 - 17 May 2015
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2016The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour: Rembrandt's 'Self Portrait at the Age of 63'Ulster Museum15 January 2016 - 13 March 2016Abbot Hall Art Gallery19 March 2016 - 15 May 2016Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery21 May 2016 - 17 July 2016
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2017Rubens and RembrandtThe National Gallery (London)22 March 2017 - 6 August 2017
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2023Masterpieces from the National GalleryShanghai Art Museum East17 January 2023 - 7 May 2023National Museum of Korea2 June 2023 - 9 October 2023Hong Kong Palace Museum22 November 2023 - 11 April 2024Chimei Museum2 May 2024 - 1 September 2024
Bibliography
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1851Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Very Choice and Valuable Collection of Pictures… of the Right Hon. the Viscount Middleton, Deceased, London, 31 July 1851
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1893É. Michel, Rembrandt, sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps, Paris 1893
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1897W. von Bode and C. Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of Rembrandt, 8 vols, Paris 1897
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1907C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
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1933G. Vertue, 'Vertue Note Books, III', The Walpole Society, XXII, 1934
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
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1967G. Martin, 'A Rembrandt Self-Portrait from His Last Year', The Burlington Magazine, CIX/771, 1967, pp. 328, 354-5
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1968H. Gerson, Rembrandt Paintings, ed. G. Schwartz, Amsterdam 1968
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1982C. Wright, Rembrandt: Self-Portraits, London 1982
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1987B.P.J. Broos, Meesterwerken in het Mauritshuis, Den Haag 1987
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1988S. Alpers, Rembrandt's Enterprise: The Studio and the Market, London 1988
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1988D. Bomford et al., Rembrandt (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 12 October 1988 - 17 January 1989), London 1988
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1989J. Mills and R. White, 'Paint Media Analyses', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIII, 1989, pp. 69-71
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1990H.P. Chapman, Rembrandt's Self-Portraits: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Identity, Princeton 1990
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1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
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1991C. Brown, J. Kelch and P.J.J. van Thiel, Rembrandt: The Master and his Workshop (exh. cat. Gemäldegalerie SMPK at the Altes Museum, 12 September - 10 November 1991; Rijksmuseum, 4 December - 1 March 1992; The National Gallery, London, 25 March - 24 May 1992), New Haven 1991
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1993C. Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour, Antwerp 1993
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1996P. Mitchell, Frameworks: Form, Function and Ornament in European Portrait Frames, London 1996
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1996J. Stückelberger, Rembrandt und die Moderne. Der Dialog mit Rembrandt in der deutschen Kunst um 1900, Munich 1996
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1998A. Sturgis, Faces, London 1998
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1999S. Schama, Rembrandt's Eyes, New York 1999
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1999C. White (ed.), Rembrandt by Himself (exh. cat. The National Gallery, London, 9 June - September 1999; Mauritshuis, 25 September 1999 - 9 January 2000), London 1999
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2000S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, 'Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669): De schilder, zijn leven, zijn vrouw, de min en het dienstmeisje', Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis, 1-2, 2000, pp. 2-40
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2002A. Wauschkuhn, Georg Simmels Rembrandt-Bild: Ein lebensphilosophischer Beitrag zur Rembrandtrezeption im 20. Jahrhundert, Worms 2002
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2002E. van de Wetering, 'The Various Functions of Rembrandt's Self-Portraits', Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis, 1-2, 2002, pp. 27-42
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2005J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, Dordrecht 2005
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2005A. Bond and J. Woodall, Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary (exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, 20 October 2005 - 29 January 2006; Art Gallery of New South Wales, 17 February - 14 May 2006), London 2005
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2007M.E. Wieseman and E. Greer, Dutch Painting: The National Gallery, London 2007
Frame
This seventeenth-century Dutch cabinetmaker’s frame accompanies Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 63. The ebony box frame has an upper moulded section with hollow, and a ripple moulding chamfered flat towards a flat frieze. The moulded inner section ends with a rippled sight edge. This frame has retained its original characteristics and has required no alterations since its acquisition by the National Gallery in 2009.
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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