Porträt eines Mannes in rotem Wams

1633 was Rembrandt's busiest year for portraits. He was 26, recently arrived in Amsterdam from Leiden, and living and working in the house of the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh, who funnelled commissions to him from the city's merchant families. Nobody has identified this sitter. The red doublet with braided clasps down the front carried military associations at the time, so one suggestion is a foreign soldier stationed at The Hague. The oval shape is not Rembrandt's doing. The oak panel came from a tree felled in the Baltic and could not have been ready to paint on before 1631, and it started out rectangular. A later owner had it cut down to the oval you see now.