Self-Portrait with Beret by Rembrandt Decorative Cushion

Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar by Rembrandt van Rijn, oil on canvas 1659, is a sombre and penetrating study of the artist in his older age. Beneath the cap of a dark beret, Rembrandt’s face bears the mark of experience and emotional depth of his many triumphs and difficulties in life, unflatteringly rendered in atmospheric chiaroscuro in layers of thick, impasto oil paint. Besides the immediacy of expression and psychological depth, the self-portrait reflects a deep study of precedents in Renaissance art, particularly the similarly composed portraits by Giorgione, Titian and Raphael, reinterpreted by the demands of Rembrandt’s penetrating, warmly human honesty. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 - 1669) was a Dutch painter and printmaker born in Leiden and active in Amsterdam during the height of the Dutch Golden Age of painting. Rembrandt apprenticed briefly with the painter Pieter Lastman before opening his own studio, where he went on to create many portraits, paintings and prints with Biblical, mythological and historical themes. Enjoying great success and fame as a portraitist and history painter, the artist experienced personal and financial hardships after the death of his wife, Saskia. Universally revered as one of the greatest painters and printmakers in Western art, Rembrandt is known for his deep empathy for the human condition. Rembrandt forged his innovative, painterly technique in his own observations of human life and deep study of classical art, the Renaissance, and the form and expression of the human figure.