Self-portrait with Tousled Hair
Rembrandt very rarely drew self-portraits. In this drawing – long regarded as a preliminary study for the nearby print – he recorded what he actually saw in the mirror: a bit of a gruff face. In the etching he added an elegant curl of hair, a ‘lovelock’, behind his shoulder, a very popular hairstyle among aristocratic dandies. So that is the image the ambitious 23-year-old Rembrandt wished to promote to the outside world.
c. 1628 - c. 1629
Pen and brown ink, with grey wash; framing line in brown ink
127.0 x 94.0mm
RP-T-1961-75
Image and text courtesy of Rijksmuseum, 2019
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Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum
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