Rembrandt by Rembrandt: The Self-Portraits

Rembrandt’s revealing self-portraits in an appealing, affordable format




Celebrated as the supreme painter of the human condition, Rembrandt
Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) famously turned the intense spotlight
of his empathetic vision on himself. In the course of 60 years, he
produced more than 50 self-portraits, in mediums ranging from paintings
to drawings to engravings. Rembrandt stood at the beginning of a long
tradition of self-portraiture—one that has given us both Cindy Sherman
in the high arts, and selfies as the primary form of visual
self-expression in everyday life—and he explored its potential in a
thoroughly modern way. He portrayed the face he turned to the world,
from youth to old age: a dandy, a husband, an artist, a solitary genius,
among many other characters. He captured inner states that are
universal to existence. Rembrandt by Rembrandt reproduces
Rembrandt’s self-portraits, with commentary about each one, in an
appealing portable format that makes a perfect gift for any art lover.