Self-Portrait with Curly Hair and a White Collar

Rembrandt devoted himself to self-portraiture throughout his life, and this genre forms a substantial portion of his oeuvre. In his early career, his self-portraits were essentially studies, in which the artist learned to capture facial features and to express various grimaces and different states of mind. The spontaneous and energetic handling of the etching needle, heightened by contrasts of light and dark over the sitter’s face endow this portrait with emotional depth and a lifelike quality.