Self-Portrait in Oriental Costume
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 to 1669) · 1631 to 1633
A young man in a turban with a feather, a long fur-trimmed robe and a sash stands in a shadowy space, one hand on his hip, looking out with a faint, self-satisfied smile. At his feet sits a poodle. The face is Rembrandt's own, at about twenty five, in the years when he was leaving Leiden for Amsterdam and beginning to make his name. He owned chests of costumes and props, and dressing himself as an oriental prince was both a piece of theatre and a way of studying how rich fabrics catch light. This is the only self-portrait in which he shows himself standing at full length.
Look first at the handling of the costume: the gold embroidery, the fur and the silk are painted with quick, confident strokes, while the face is worked more carefully, with light falling from the upper left onto the cheek and the tip of the nose. Then look at the dog. Technical examination has shown that it was painted on top of the finished picture, hiding the artist's legs and feet. Rembrandt seems to have been unhappy with the pose and found a witty way to fix it. The poodle, a hunting dog used for waterfowl, also adds a note of gentlemanly display.
The painting was bought in 1840 by Auguste Dutuit, one of two wealthy brothers from Rouen who assembled an extraordinary collection of paintings, prints, manuscripts and antiquities. When Auguste died in 1902 he left the whole collection to the City of Paris, and it became the foundation of the Petit Palais. Earlier owners had attributed the picture to Jan Lievens, Rembrandt's friend and studio companion in Leiden, which tells you how close the two young painters were at this moment.
Did You Know? X-rays show that the poodle was added later to cover the artist's legs, whose pose Rembrandt apparently disliked.
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