Laughing Young Man

A young man wearing a painter’s cap, probably Rembrandt, laughs cheerfully at us. The painting is not a portrait, but rather a portrayal of an emotion. Rembrandt frequently used his own face to practice rendering expressions: smiling, angry, sad, or startled. This panel was long considered an early self-portrait by the artist. Now it is thought to be by a pupil in Rembrandt’s Leiden workshop.