Bildnis eines alten Mannes

Rembrandt painted this in 1667, two years before he died, and it shows how loose and free his late work had become. The sitter, an elderly man thought to be his friend Lodewijck van Ludick, a merchant and art dealer, sits with his jacket open, his collar loosened and his hat pushed back, at ease in a way people rarely allowed themselves in a portrait. By now Rembrandt had outlived his fame and most of his money. His companion Hendrickje was dead, and his son Titus would die the following year. He built the face with thick, worked paint, in places scraping into it with the wooden end of his brush to pick out the wiry grey hairs escaping from under the hat.