Rembrandt Self-Portrait with Beret Glossy Poster

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.