Self-portrait in Oriental Dress

Rembrandt painted this around 1631, about the time he was leaving his home town of Leiden for Amsterdam, where the portrait commissions and the money were. He was in his mid-20s and not yet the famous man he would become. Here he dresses himself up, a richly embroidered robe, a turban, a sword, in the kind of eastern costume that fascinated the Dutch just as their ships were opening trade routes to Asia. It is a young painter showing what he could do with fabric, gold and light rather than a record of any real journey. A small poodle sits at his feet. Scholars have long argued the dog was added afterwards, perhaps not even by Rembrandt's own hand.