Self-portrait 1659

This is one of the many self-portraits Rembrandt van Rijn painted in the Netherlands throughout his career. The proliferation of self-portraits in 17th century Netherlands, where there was no longer a royal court to set the trends in art, is a fascinating phenomenon. The artists become their own patrons, using their own faces to explore different aspects of human nature, a concept that was very much en vogue at the time. But it also shows the professionalization of the artist, who becomes a brand in their own right. Here, the emphasis is less on surface likeness than on the revelation of character. You could see how Rembrandt, using a mirror as his reference, painstakingly analyzed his own physiognomy. The rise of museums and art history as disciplines in the 19th century gave these self-portraits a new status. It is this institutional history that shapes our interpretation of these images today.