The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Self-Portrait Drawing at a Window
1648
(Dutch, 1606–1669)
Sheet: 17.3 x 14.5 cm (6 13/16 x 5 11/16 in.); Platemark: 15.6 x 12.9 cm (6 1/8 x 5 1/16 in.)
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1934.350
Catalogue raisonné: Hollstein 22 (XVIII.10)
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
In order to show himself with the direct gaze that characterizes this self-portrait, Rembrandt translated a view seen while studying himself in a mirror.Description
In this late self-portrait—one of more than 80 created by Rembrandt van Rijn—the artist shows himself informally posed at a studio window. He uses a needle to draw into a copper etching plate and gazes directly at the viewer as if interrupted in the process of creating a work of art. The window provides the light required to complete this task, but it also reveals the isolation of art making by juxtaposing Rembrandt’s interior space with the expansive landscape and external world from which he has sequestered himself.- Jean-Louis-Henri Le Secq, dit Des Tournelles (1818-1882), Paris, stamped (Lugt 1336), verso, lower right, in blue. Leonard Colton Hanna, Jr. (1889-1957), Cleveland, Ohio; gift, 1934
- Salsbury, Britany. “Open Windows.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 26. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 26.
- Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).Prints by Rembrandt from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 28, 1937-March 8, 1938).Recent Accessions of Prints, 1933-34. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-March 13, 1935).
- {{cite web|title=Self-Portrait Drawing at a Window|url=false|author=Rembrandt van Rijn|year=1648|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1934.350