Autorretrato

By 1665 Gerrit Dou was one of the best-paid painters in the Dutch Republic, and he had got there by doing the opposite of his teacher. As a boy he trained under Rembrandt in Leiden. When Rembrandt left for Amsterdam and his broad, loaded brushwork, Dou stayed home and went the other way, polishing every surface until no single stroke showed. Collectors paid extraordinary sums for that finish. Here he shows himself at the height of it, leaning out of a stone niche with his palette, framed as though standing in a window. A Leiden collector named Johan de Bye had recently rented a house just to put some 27 of Dou's pictures on public show.