Portrait of a Man in a Tall Hat (c.1663)

Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Portrait of a Man in a Tall Hat
c.1663
Oil on canvas, 121.3 x 94 cm
National Gallery of ArtWashington

After learning the fundamentals of drawing and painting in his native LeidenRembrandt van Rijn went to Amsterdam in 1624 to study for six months with Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), a famous history painter. Upon completion of his training Rembrandt returned to Leiden. Around 1632 he moved to Amsterdam, quickly establishing himself as the town’s leading artist, specializing in history paintings and portraiture. He received many commissions and attracted a number of students who came to learn his method of painting. The identity of this distinguished sitter has long been lost, but his dress and demeanor indicate that he was a well-to-do man, probably an Amsterdam merchant. Similarities between this work and Rembrandt‘s Syndics of the Cloth Drapers’ Guild of 1662 suggest that the two paintings are not far removed in date. The sitter’s hairstyle and costume, particularly his wide, flat collar with its tassels, are similar, as is the self-assured gravity that he projects as he focuses his eyes on the viewer from beneath his wide-brimmed black hat. Unfortunately, large portions of the painting have suffered from abrasion and overpainting, and a thick layer of discolored varnish covers the work. Nevertheless, the sitter’s face has been well preserved, so that the painting retains its powerful presence and the sitter his imposing dignity. Shown from about the knees up, a man with peachy skin, wearing a voluminous black cloak and a tall, brimmed hat, looks directly at us in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left and he turns his face to look at us with brown eyes. He has a wispy, brown mustache over his pale pink lips, which are closed. He has a slight double chin and his reddish-brown hair falls to his shoulders. His wide, brimmed hat has a tall crown, which tapers a bit near the top. His black cloak falls over his arms and body, and has a wide, flat, white collar. Two white tassels hang below the split down the front of the collar. His left hand, to our right, is braced against the arm of a chair, and he rests his hand around the wooden end of the chair’s arm. The wall behind him is brick-red with a coffee-brown rectangle to our left. Two vertical, fawn-brown stripes run down the red wall to our right, behind the man. Brushstrokes are visible in some areas, as in the man’s face, and a network of cracks runs across the surface of the canvas. (NGA)