© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)1634
oil on panel
71.1 x 56 cm
signed and dated in dark paint, lower rightquadrant: “Rembrandt. f. / 1634”
RR-110How to cite
De Witt, David. “Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived
December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

This image of the young Rembrandt van Rijn, proud in bearing as he gazes directly

Comparative Figures

out at the viewer from within an oval framing device, is not easily forgotten. Witheyes gently shaded by his beret’s soft brim, Rembrandt’s gaze is compelling in its
directness, yet one senses a restless mind that is only partially revealed. One cannot
help but stare back, and thus become engaged in silent communication with the artist.
It is a strange phenomenon, but suddenly, without recognizing the moment in which it
occurs, the physical reality of the painted image blurs, and the psychological rapport
between the viewer and Rembrandt begins.
Rembrandt’s expression reinforces the impression that he was not only a self-assured
young man, uncompromising in his approach to the world, but also an enigmatic
individual whose true personality he kept largely to himself. The painting seems socharacteristic of Rembrandt’s work from the early 1630s that it is easy to overlook
how striking its psychological ambiguity must have appeared to his contemporaries.
Twenty-first-century viewers have come to judge Rembrandt’s character and artistic

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, SelfPortrait, 1632, oil on panel, 63.5 ×
46.3 cm, Glasgow Museums, The
Burrell Collection, inv. 35.600

personality through the sum total of his life and work. Numerous paintings, drawings© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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and etchings, as well as documents, stories and myths, have left an indelible
impression of his extraordinary artistic achievements through a long, memorable
career. Therefore, it is difficult to place oneself in Amsterdam in 1634, imagining
how such an image would have been received by contemporaries familiar with a far
more descriptive portrait tradition.
Rembrandt began exploring the expressive character of self-portraits in Leiden in thelate 1620s, and he continued to depict himself in paintings, drawings and etchings
throughout his career. Indeed, self-portraiture constitutes around one-tenth of his total
surviving oeuvre.[1] He incorporated a wide range of pictorial effects and devices inthese works, far more so than he did in his commissioned portraits. The endlessvariety and invention of his self-portraits is such that no two look quite alike.
A number of Rembrandt’s early self-portraits relate to the tronies that he and Jan

Fig 2. Photograph of Self-Portrait with
Shaded Eyes, RR-110, ca. 1935, withadditions (photograph courtesy ofMartin Bijl)

Lievens (1607–74) developed in Leiden, and they feature the kinds of emotional
expressions, fancy costumes, loose paint handling, and striking light effects evident inthose works. Echoes of Rembrandt’s early tronies are seen here in the artist’s
expression, the strong lighting effects, and his imaginative costume, all of which
differ from the formal presentation of his Self-Portrait of 1632 in Glasgow (fig 1).[2]Whereas in that Self-Portrait Rembrandt closely followed the fashion among
Amsterdam’s burghers by wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a flat ruff over a blackcoat, in the self-portrait in the Leiden Collection he has donned a beret, which by the1620s was considered old-fashioned, although it continued to be favored byartists.[3] The fur-trimmed robe he wears here also descends from sixteenth-century
dress and relates to the tabbaard, a type of fur-lined cloak favored by scholars.[4]This combination of beret and fur-trimmed robe may indicate that Rembrandt sought
to portray himself within the framework of a scholarly and artistic tradition. Given
that he painted Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes in the year of his marriage to Saskia

Fig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, SelfPortrait with Raised Sabre, 1634,
etching, state 2 of 2, 125 × 103 mm,
British Museum, London, inv.
1973-U-840, © Trustees of the British
MuseumUylenburgh, it is likely that he wanted to present himself as a sincere and legitimate
artist-suitor, of a type different from artists who were characterized by such slurs as“hoe schilder hoe wilder” (the more of a painter the wilder he is).[5] Rembrandt’s
restrained modeling of his features in this painting also speaks to the thoughtfulnessof his self-representation. As Ernst van de Wetering has emphasized, Rembrandt
carefully modeled his flesh tones to capture the effects of reflected light in shaded
areas, such as around the eyes.[6]Remarkably, despite its compelling qualities, Rembrandt’s self-portrait was entirely
overpainted by another hand soon after its completion, and it was only in the latetwentieth century that the master’s original image was revealed once again. A
photograph from the mid-1930s indicates that the overpainted image depicted an
exotic middle-aged man with long, dark, curly hair, a moustache, and a thin beard (Fig 4. Photograph of Self-Portrait with
Shaded Eyes, RR-110, ca. 1950, withadditions partly removed (photographcourtesy of Martin Bijl)© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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fig 2).[7] He wore a fur coat and a tall Polish-style fur hat, a so-called kalpac trimmedwith gold, similar to Rembrandt’s 1634 etched Self-Portrait with Raised Sabre (fig 3).
[8]

He also wore a golden chain wound twice over his mantle, in a manner similar tothat in Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait in the Wallace Collection, also from the 1630s.[9]From the 1950s to the 1980s some of the overpainting was removed (fig 4), which
revealed the existence of the beret under the kalpac. Technical research undertakenby the Rembrandt Research Project in the 1990s posited that the additions had likely
been made in Rembrandt’s workshop around 1636/37, only a few years after thecreation of the original painting. The remaining areas of overpaint were subsequently
taken off with a scalpel by conservator Martin Bijl (fig 5).
Just why this repainting of Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes was undertaken is notknown, but it may have occurred if Rembrandt’s painting had not immediately founda buyer. In any event, it seems unlikely that the master would have authorized thisFig 5. Photograph of Self-Portrait with
Shaded Eyes, RR-110, ca. 1980, withfurther additions removed (photographcourtesy of Martin Bijl)

repainting. A more probable scenario would be that the panel remained in theworkshop of Hendrick Uylenburgh after Rembrandt’s departure in 1635, and that
Uylenburgh decided to update the image. Uylenburgh may well have charged his newhead painter Govaert Flinck with the task of turning this Rembrandt self-portrait into
a tronie of an exotic figure.[10] Flinck clearly knew Rembrandt’s self-portrait in its
original format, for in 1636 he used it as a basis for an image of his former master as
an amorous shepherd, as part of a pair with a shepherdess (fig 6).[11] The loose
handling of the repainting on Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes corresponds
to Flinck’s stylistic development around 1637. The fascinating transformation of thissensitive self-portrait into an exotic and somewhat frightening individual, and backagain, serves as a powerful reminder of how works of art often have long andcomplicated lives that reflect differences of taste and values over the years.

Fig 6. Govaert Flinck, Rembrandt as a
Shepherd with Flute and Staff, 1636,
oil on canvas, 74.5 × 64 cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. SKA-3451- David de Witt, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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Endnotes
1. More than 80 self-portraits by Rembrandt are known today, including some 40 paintings, 30 etchings,
and 7 drawings; Ernst van de Wetering, “Rembrandts verborgen zelfportretten/Rembrandt’s Hidden SelfPortraits,” Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis 1 (2002): 2. On Rembrandt’s self-portraits, see Christopher
White and Quentin Buvelot, eds., Rembrandt by Himself (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery; The
Hague, Mauritshuis) (London, 1999), and Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus
of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4, Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2005), Addendum
IV. See also H. Perry Chapman, Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Identity(Princeton, 1990), and the reassessment of her analysis in Marieke de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dressand Meaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings (Amsterdam, 2006), passim, as well as in White and Buvelot,
Rembrandt by Himself, passim, and Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
4: Self-Portraits. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2005), passim.
2. See Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2: 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 2: no. A 58.
3. Marieke de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings (Amsterdam,
2006), 164f. Although Rembrandt may have worn berets on occasion, he also tended to include them inself-portraits in combination with fanciful or imaginary components of dress, such as the Asian
patterned silk scarf and heavy gold chains. See, for example, his 1629 Self-Portrait in The Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, oil on panel, 89.7 × 73.5 cm, acc. P21n6.
4. Marieke de Winkel, “‘Eene der deftigsten dragten’: The Iconography of the Tabbaard and the Sense of
Tradition in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Portraiture,” in Beeld en zelfbeeld in de Nederlandse kunst,
1550–1750/Image and Self-Image in Netherlandish Art, 1550–1750, Nederlands KunsthistorischJaarboek 46 (Zwolle, 1995): 146–66.
5. It is possibly significant that Rembrandt’s assistant at this time, Govaert Flinck (1615–60), hadconfronted this stigma as he sought to become an artist: see Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh
der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam 1718–21; revised edition publishedin The Hague, 1753; reprinted in Amsterdam, 1976), 2:18–19.
6. Ernst van de Wetering, “Rembrandts verborgen zelfportretten/Rembrandt’s Hidden Self-Portraits,”
Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis (2002): 15.
7. See the account of the assessment and removal of these additions in Ernst van de Wetering et al., A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4: Self-Portraits, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project(Dordrecht, 2005), 617–26, no. IV Addendum 2; first published as an article: Ernst van de Wetering,“Rembrandts verborgen zelfportretten/Rembrandt’s Hidden Self-Portraits,” Kroniek van het
Rembrandthuis (2002): 16–25.
8. On the Polish character of this head covering, see Michael Zell, Reframing Rembrandt: Jews and the© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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Christian Image in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam (Berkeley, 2002), 46–48, and Alfred Rubens, A
History of Jewish Costume, 2nd ed. (London, 1973), 104–5.
9. Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, second half of the 1630s, oil on panel, 64 × 49 cm, The Wallace
Collection, London, inv. no. P 52; see: Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings,
vol. 4: Self-Portraits, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2005), 4: 604,
Corrigenda III C 96.
10. This assessment draws support from Joachim von Moltke’s attribution of the painting in its overpainted
state to Flinck. See Joachim Wolfgang von Moltke, Govaert Flinck, 1615–1660 (Amsterdam, 1965),
246–47, under no. 101. A somewhat similar painting by Flinck is his Bust of a Young Man in a Plumed
Beret, 1637, oil on canvas, 73 × 57.5 cm, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, inv. 782 (seePortrait of Antonie Coopal, RR-103, fig. 6).
11. This painting is a pendant to Flinck’s Shepherdess, 1636, oil on canvas, 74.5 × 63.5 cm, Herzog Anton
Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, inv. 252; Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols.
(Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 2: 1030–31, nos. 655, 656. Sumowski rightly dismisses the traditional
identification of the Braunschweig Shepherdess as Saskia Uylenburgh.

Provenance
Christian Gottlob Frege, Leipzig (1715–81), possibly by descent to his son Christian Gottlob Frege(1747–1816), and to his son Christian Gottlob Frege (1778–1855).
Private collection, Paris, as of 1935, possibly André de Hevesy.
Paul Page, Moulins, France, by 1956, and thence by descent (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 10 July 2003, no.
19).[1]
Steve Wynn (b. 1942), Las Vegas [through Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York].[2]From whom acquired by the present owner in 2008.

Provenance Notes

1. The catalogue for Hotel Druot’s sale on June 18, 1956 describes Son portrait par lui-méme at 74 x 61 cm(cat. no. 115), which sold for 20,000 francs. This could describe the transaction in which Paul Page
acquired the present work.
2. Johannes Vermeer’s Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, now in The Leiden Collection, was also
formerly in the collection of Steve Wynn.

Exhibition History© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, “Rembrandt’s Hidden Self-Portraits,” 31 January–16 March
2003 [lent by a private collection, France].
Norfolk, Virginia, Chrysler Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 22 June 2009–22 January2010 [lent by the present owner].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, January–December 2010, [lent by
the present owner].
Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, “Rembrandt: The Quest for Chiaroscuro,” 12 March–12 June
2011; Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum, 25 June–4 September 2011, no. 13 [lent by the present
owner].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Rembrandt in America,” 30 October 2011–22 January 2012;
Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 19 February–28 May 2012; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute ofArts, 24 June–16 September 2012, no. 17 [lent by the present owner].
Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, March 2013–December
2014 [lent by the present owner].
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, on loan with the permanent collection, January 2015–January 2016
[lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,” 22
February–22 May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lent by the present
owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the present owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of
The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019 [lent by the present
owner].

References
Von Moltke, Joachim Wolfgang. Govaert Flinck (1615–1660). Amsterdam, 1965, 246–47, under no.
101 (as by Rembrandt and basis for copy attributed to Govaert Flinck).
© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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Van de Wetering, Ernst. “Rembrandt’s Hidden Self-Portraits/Rembrandts verborgen zelfportretten.”
Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis (2002): 2–3, 8–25, nos. 1–2, 16–27.
Van de Wetering, Ernst, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 4: Self-Portraits. Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. Dordrecht, 2005, 139–40, figs. 73–75, 207-214, fig. 197, fig.
199, Addendum IV 2, 615-26, figs. 1–12, figs. 15–16.
Schwartz, Gary. The Rembrandt Book. New York, 2006, 198, no. 336, 371.
Van de Wetering, Ernst. “The Various Functions of Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits.” In Rembrandt: Three
Faces of the Master. Edited by Benedict Leca, 61–63, nos. 25–26. Exh. cat. Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art
Museum. Cincinnati, 2008.
Hirschfelder, Dagmar. Tronie und Porträt in der niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts. Berlin,
2008, 165–67, no. 423, no. 424.
Van de Wetering, Ernst. Rembrandt: A Life in 180 Paintings. Amsterdam, 2008, 212–13.
Kofuku, Akira, ed. Rembrandt: The Quest for Chiaroscuro. Exh. cat. Tokyo, National Museum ofWestern Art; Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum. Tokyo, 2011, 344–45, no. 13.
Van de Wetering, Ernst, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 5: Small-Scale History Paintings.
Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. Dordrecht, 2011, 317–19, figs. 13–14.
Rassieur, Tom. “Rembrandt in the Seventeenth Century.” In Rembrandt in America: Collecting andConnoisseurship. Edited by George S. Keyes, Tom Rassieur, and Dennis P. Weller, 27, 43–44, pl. 7, 50.
Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art; Minneapolis,
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. New York, 2011.
Keyes, George S. “Rembrandt Paintings and America.” In Rembrandt in America: Collecting andConnoisseurship. Edited by George S. Keyes, Tom Rassieur, and Dennis P. Weller, 60, Exh. cat. Raleigh,North Carolina Museum of Art; Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art; Minneapolis, Minneapolis
Institute of Arts. New York, 2011.
Weller, Dennis P. “Rembrandt in the Seventeenth Century.” In Rembrandt in America: Collecting andConnoisseurship. Edited by George S. Keyes, Tom Rassieur, and Dennis P. Weller, 182, no. 17. Exh. cat.
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art; Minneapolis,
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. New York, 2011.
Surh, Dominique. “Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes.” In Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Ageof Rembrandt. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 38, no. 9. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du
Louvre. Paris, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Rembrandt and His Time: China and the Dutch Republic in the Golden Age.” In
Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 9;13, no.11. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 42–43; 174, no. 11. Translated by Li Ying. Exh.
cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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Wang, Jia. “Dutch Painting in Golden Age.” In Journal of National Museum of China 169, no. 8 (2017):
34.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 62–63.
DeWitt, David. “Govert Flinck Learns to Paint Like Rembrandt.” In Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck –Rembrandt’s Master Pupils. Edited by Norbert Middelkoop and David DeWitt, 27, fig. 16. Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis. Zwolle, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 18, 21; 29, 32.
Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine
Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara “Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 170–71; 242, no. 52. Translated by
Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer andthe Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by
Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 25, 28. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019.
[Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Blanc, Jan. “Being Modern, Being Dutch: The Seventeenth-Century Invention of the Golden Age.” In
Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Muséedu Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt,
42. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019, 86–7, no. 22. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Manuth, Volker, and Marieke de Winkel. Rembrandt. The Self-Portraits. Cologne, 2019, 90-1, 158,
illustrated.
Manuth, Volker, Marieke de Winkel, and Rudie van Leeuwen. Rembrandt. The Complete Paintings.
Cologne, 2019, 188, 607, no. 154.
Sevcik, Anja K., ed. Inside Rembrandt 1606-1669. Exh. cat. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum &Fondation Corboud. Petersberg, 2019, 232–35, no. 72.
Vogelaar, Christiaan. “The Leiden Collection.” In Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: History Paintingsfrom The Leiden Collection. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Caroline Van Cauwenberge, 10–11,
ill. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam. Zwolle, 2023. [Exhibition catalogue also published in
Dutch.]© 2024 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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Versions
Versions and Copies
1. Attributed to Govaert Flinck, copy of Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes in unrestored (pre-1966) state, oil
on panel, 69 x 55 cm, present location unknown. Formerly with art dealer J. Boehler in Munich in 1929;
with art dealer A. G. Luzern in 1934; and with an unknown art dealer in Berlin in 1962.

Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular composite panel, comprises three vertically grained Eastern Baltic oak planks, awide central plank flanked by two identical width narrow planks. The planks derive from at least two
different trees felled after 1626, with a first use date of between 1626 and 1658. The left vertical panel joinruns through the left side of the black cap, the right join through the background to the figure’s right. Narrowwood shims have been secured to both vertical edges. The panel has bevels along all four sides and isunthinned and uncradled. The panel reverse has two identical red wax seals along the central plank but nopaper labels, import stamps or obvious panel maker’s mark.
A warm, light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The portrait has been painted in a feigned
oval on the rectangular panel support. The paint along the four outer corners has been applied thinly as aglaze with lively brushstrokes that allow the light-colored ground to show through. The brushwork along thebrown paint applied to the lower right quadrant of the oval where the signature has been applied also allows
the ground to show through. The remainder of the composition within the confines of the oval—the graybackground, the face, and the dark garments—has been applied in a paste consistency with low brushwork
and low impasto. Under magnification, the hairs that make up the left side of Rembrandt’s moustache appear
to have been scratched into the wet paint.
In 2000 Martin Bijl restored the painting and removed major restorations that had been applied, presumably
by one of Rembrandt’s pupils, soon after it was executed, which had altered the half-length self-portrait ofRembrandt as a 28-year-old man into one resembling a Russian aristocrat by adding earrings, a goatee,shoulder length hair, and a velvet cap. Bijl’s restoration revealed the original portrait of Rembrandt with theround chin and gentle eyes common in other self-portraits.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000
nanometers.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint along the lower right quadrant of the feigned oval.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2008 and remains in a goodstate of preservation.
Further technical information about this artwork is available in The Rembrandt Database.
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Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes
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Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Ian Tyers’s 2003 and 2011 dendrochronology reports. The
panel underwent dendrochronology by Peter Klein in 1995.
2. The narrow left and right planks are 13 cm wide.
3. With black tape applied to the panel reverse.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection