Self-Portrait with a Velvet Beret and a Fur Collar

As no artist before him, Rembrandt was interested in exploring his own physiognomy, and from his early youth until old age produced a large number of records of an autobiographical nature in painted, drawn and etched likenesses of himself. His move from Leiden to the cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam in 1631 marked a deep caesura in the life and artistic development of the artist, as his self-portraits testify. Rembrandt changed his place of residence mainly in the expectation of gaining profitable commissions for portraits. Although he always saw his true vocation in the role of a history painter, in his early years in Amsterdam it was above all numerous portrait commissions that established his rise in material and social terms. To his professional success was added personal happiness when in 1634 he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the daughter of a wealthy lawyer from Frisia. The painting shown here dates from the year of his marriage.The work is a head-and-shoulders figure of Rembrandt clad in a dark coat, a fur collar and a scarf draped loosely around his neck. A black velvet beret covers his head. His upper torso is turned to the right in three-quarters profile, his face turned directly to the viewer with eyes rendered narrow and in shade, his mouth slightly open. The asymmetry of the figure’s outline enhances its vigorous movement towards the beholder and imparts the characteristic dynamism of the depiction. The face, divided vertically by a high-contrast play of light and shade, betrays a wish to idealise the naturally endowed width and irregularity of his features. In contrast to self-portraits from the early period in Leiden, in which Rembrandt usually posed as his own model in order to try out the representation of emotions, here he shows himself in a clearly social context as a successful painter who does not lack creative talent. The latter quality is indicated by the clouded, shaded brow – an attribute of a melancholic temperament.A second self-portrait by Rembrandt in the Gemäldegalerie (fig. left) is today accepted as having been executed by the artist himself only in parts. Surprisingly strong similarities can be ascertained in the colouring of the flesh tones and the clothing. According to the most recent investigations, Rembrandt probably started the two self-portraits, which are almost identical in size, at the same time. One of them he completed himself, while the other was presumably finished only at a later time by an employee in his studio. On account of these alterations by another hand, this work was thought not to derive from Rembrandt and was held in much lower estimation.The provenance of the works, too, shows how closely the two are linked. The Self-Portrait with Velvet Beret and a Coat with Fur Collar, now recognised as a genuine Rembrandt, passed into the possession of the Hohenzollern family at an early date, and probably kept in the Berlin City Palace from the early 18th century. The second painting by contrast, equally accepted at this time as an original self-portrait, Rembrandt with Velvet Beret and Iron Gorget, was acquired later by Frederick the Great for the newly built picture gallery of Sanssouci Palace. The assumption that Frederick could have presented in his magnificent gallery only the more highly rated self-portrait, today regarded as authentic, presumably led to the fact that the historic locations of the two paintings were constantly confused until recently. Jan Kelch, Katja Kleinert und Claudia Laurenze-Landsberg | 200 Masterpieces of European Painting - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2019