Self-Portrait

Rembrandt painted more than 40 self-portraits over his lifetime - a body of self-reflection unprecedented in Western art.

By this point the glamour has gone - he had gone bankrupt, lost his house, and outlived his son.

He represents himself in old age, wrinkled and podgy, unsparing - in a style that seems closer to 19th century art, than the more elegialic style of the 17th century.

The brushwork is thick and layered - especially in the face.

Fun fact : Rembrandt's self-portraits were so admired that fake 'Rembrandts' were produced by the hundreds.

The Rembrandt Research Project, created in 1968, spent decades analysing and re-attributing his paintings - removing about a third as inauthentic - but this one survived all reassessments!