Self-portrait, Leaning on a Stone Sill

This is the last piece from our special month with The Rembrandt House Museum - and it this a fantastic etching. If you want to find out more about The Rembrandt House Museum - we've prepared for you an article 

Here Rembrandt has depicted himself as a grand-seigneur. The striking pose – body in profile, face turned towards the spectator and left arm resting on a balustrade – is borrowed from ‘Ariosto’ in the portrait by Titian (The National Gallery, London). At the time, this painting was in Amsterdam, where it was part of the collection of Alfonso Lopez. While he worked on this etching Rembrandt would almost certainly have had Raphael’s famous portrait of Baldassare Castiglione in mind. That painting was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1639, when it too was acquired by Lopez. Rembrandt did a sketch of it on that occasion. Perhaps here Rembrandt is competing with the Italian masters, demonstrating his equality with them. A year later he made a painted version of this portrait (The National Gallery, London).