Rembrandt (1606-1669) & workshop?
Self-Portrait
c.1634–1635
Oil on oak, 80 x 62 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Partially repainted painting and a complex execution process. Initially rectangular in format – the panel originally bore a student composition of the master inspired by his engraving of The Good Samaritan, from 1634 – then turned into an oval to serve as a support for a self-portrait by Rembrandt of still young appearance with a very different hairstyle, with a plume oriented towards the left, as revealed by the x-ray. The current face and part of the collar, of good quality, seem to be the work of the master, while the rest of the painting, as we currently see it – headdress, clothing and background architecture in particular – results from unexplained later contributions, in fact non-rembranesque. Either an original partially overpainted (after some accident or completed thus due to its possible incompletion?) and recently rehabilitated (cf. Corpus Rembrandt). Dated around 1634–1635 in a first stage, original work by Rembrandt, then around 1640 in a second phase (intervention by another hand) by comparison with the Self-portrait of London (S.D. 1640, cf. Lecaldano, n° 233) or that of Windsor (1642, cf. Lecaldano, no. 247). (Louvre)