# Self-Portrait [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Etching, second state of two, 207 x 164 mm ## Commentary <a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/database/glossary/note03.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=300,height=400'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return false">Catalogue number:</a> Bartsch 21. This is a self-portrait leaning on a stone sill. In this self-portrait, Rembrandt takes on a guise that his contemporaries would have associated with a poet. Rembrandt emulates a pose <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/t/tiziano/10/21/01bluesl.html'\)" href="/html/t/tiziano/10/21/01bluesl.html">bestowed by Titian</a> on a sitter thought at the time to be the Ferrara court poet Ludovico Ariosto Freely adapting the composition of portraits by Raphael and Titian that he knew well, Rembrandt presents himself as an imposing creator in a sumptuous cape and beret. As always, he uses the fine line of the etching tool in a variety of ways, yet with exceptional economy, leaving two-thirds of the sheet blank and pursuing the effect of bright daylight. The meaning of light here is almost literal: devoid of any mysticism, it produces a vivid impression of a flourishing life and career. ## Related artworks - [A black drummer and commander mounted on mules; riding in profile]() - [A child being taught to walk]() - [A cottage beneath trees]() - [A girl sleeping]() - [A Man Laughing]() - [A man making water]() - [A Peddler Selling Spectacles \(The Allegory of Sight\)]() - [A Polish Nobleman]() - [A Scholar]() - [A two-humped camel]() - [A woman in Zeeland costume, from the back]() - [A woman in Zeeland costume, from the front]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()