Self-portrait as the Apostle Paul

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1661

Rembrandt is 55 years old in this self-portrait, and he still looks at himself candidly. Here he assumes the guise of a personage from the Bible, the Apostle Paul. The sword protruding from his cloak and the manuscript in his hands are the apostle’s customary attributes. By using his own face, Rembrandt encouraged the viewer to engage personally with the saint.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-4050
  • Dimensionsheight 91 cm x width 77 cm
  • Physical characteristicsoil on canvas

Identification

  • Title(s)

    • Self-portrait as the Apostle Paul
    • Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul

  • Object type

  • Object number

    SK-A-4050

  • Description

    Zelfportret van Rembrandt als de apostel Paulus. Ten halven lijve naar links, het gelaat naar de kijker gewend. Met openstaande mantel die zicht geeft op het zwaard dat op de borst wordt gedragen, op het hoofd een witte tulband. In de handen een opengevouwen bundel zendbrieven.

  • Inscriptions / marks

    signature and date: ‘Rembrandt f. 1661’

Creation

  • Creation

    painter: Rembrandt van Rijn

  • Dating

    1661

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Material and technique

  • Physical description

    oil on canvas

  • Dimensions

    height 91 cm x width 77 cm

This work is about

  • Person

  • Subject

Exhibitions

Acquisition and rights

  • Credit line

    De Bruijn-van der Leeuw Bequest, Muri, Switzerland

  • Acquisition

    bequest 1961

  • Copyright

    Public domain

  • Provenance

    ? Estate inventory, Eberhard Jabach (1618-95), Paris, 17 July 1696, no. 123 ('Portrait de Rimbrands, ayant un linge blanc autour de sa test, 1/2 figure grande comme le naturel, de luy-mesme. 100 liv[res]’);{The number ‘123’ painted on the reverse of the stretcher in imitation of the original corresponds to the number in the 1696 posthumous inventory; for the inventory see Grouchy 1894, pp. 249−92, esp. p. 255.} …; ? collection Nicolas Vleughels (1668-1737), Rome; from his widow, Marie-Thérèse Gosset (1703-56), 100 scudi, to Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini (1685-1770), Rome, before 1750;{According to the Inventario dei quadri comprati coi proprii denari avventizii dall’Emo Sig.s Cardinal Neri Maria Cosini, no. 15: ‘Dalla Vedova Wleughel. Il proprio Ritratto di Reimbrant s[cudi] 100’. The painting is no. 164 in the 1750 Inventario di tutti i quadri of Palazzo Corsini: ‘Il Ritratto di Reimbrant di sua mano, comprato sc[udi] 100. Comprato da Madama Wleughles’.} …; purchased from the Corsini collection, by the London art dealer William Buchanan (1777-1864), summer 1807;{According to a label transferred from the original stretcher to the present one: ‘From the Corsini Palace of Rome / brought to England by William Buchanan Esq. in Summer 1807’.} from whom, 500 guineas, to Charles Kinnaird (1780-1826), 8th Lord Kinnaird, Rossie Priory near Dundee, before 2 January 1809;{Buchanan 1824, vol. 2, p. 179, no. 4. The painting was first recorded in the Kinnaird collection in the inscription to a reproductive mezzotint by Charles Turner (1773-1857): ‘Rembrandt. A Portrait of himself. Bought from the collection of the Corsini family at Rome by Mr Buchanan. 3’ by 2’6 1/8 Pubd. Jan. 2. 1809’.} from the Kinnaird collection, £ 47,500, to Isaäc de Bruijn (1872-1953) and his wife, Johanna Gertruida van der Leeuw (1877-1960), Spiez and Muri, near Bern, 28 May 1936; from whom on loan to the museum, 1956-60; by whom bequeathed to the museum, December 1960

Documentation

    • The Rembrandt Database, Object information, Rembrandt, Self portrait as the apostle Paul, dated 1661, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-A-4050, http://www.rembrandtdatabase.org/Rembrandt/painting/2947/self-portrait-as-the-apostle-paul, accessed 2016 February 01
    • P.J.J. van Thiel, 'Zelfportret als de apostel Paulus', Openbaar Kunstbezit 13 (1969) nr. 2, p. 1a-b.
    • G. Luijten, ''De veelheid en de eelheid' : een Rijksmuseum Schmidt-Degener', Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 35 (1984), p. 377, afb. 26.

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