Autorretrato com boina preta e corrente de ouro

Rembrandt painted himself at 48 here, in 1654, wearing a heavy gold chain. Chains like it were what princes gave to court painters they wished to honour. Rembrandt never worked for a court and was never given one. He owned this as a studio prop and put it on again and again across his self-portraits, claiming a standing the world had not formally granted him. He was in Amsterdam, his fortunes already turning, and within two years he would file for insolvency and sell off his house and collection. The face here shows none of that. He built the skin and the chain in thick, worked paint, studying his own reflection in a mirror as he had done for more than 30 years.