Portrait of Nicolaes Ruts

Rembrandt was around 25 and had just moved from Leiden to Amsterdam when he took this commission in 1631. It seems to be the first portrait he painted for someone outside his own family, and he clearly wanted it to land. The sitter, Nicolaes Ruts, was an Amsterdam merchant who traded with the Russian north, sending ships to Arkhangelsk and bringing back furs, so Rembrandt made the furs do the talking. The heavy sable-lined coat and the soft Russian hat are painted almost hair by hair, catching the light, while Ruts turns as if you had just walked in on him holding out a letter. It worked. Commissions from Amsterdam's merchant families followed, and the city kept him busy for the rest of the decade.