Self-Portrait etching at a Window

Self-Portrait drawing at a Window is Rembrandt's last etched self-portrait, and six years separated it from the one before; six years of trouble and hardship during which his wife Saskia died, his financial situation deteriorated, and his relationship with Geertge Dircx, the nursemaid of his young son Titus, turned sour and culminated in a court battle. This study displays a very different sensibility than those of the previous decade, which show him in elaborate costume, posing and posturing for the public. If the previous self-portraits concentrated on external appearance, this is much more a description of the man within. Adorned in plain working clothes he sits intently studying his own reflection in a mirror in order to capture it on a copper plate. He holds an etching needle in his right hand and the plate, unseen by the viewer, sits on a folded cloth supported on two thick books. The architecture is indeterminate, and the window serves only to throw a strong oblique light on his features, enhancing the mood of introspection. He seems to be saying to himself as much as to the viewer: 'This is who I am, this is what I do'.

The difference between fourth state (last lifetime) and fifth state (first posthumous) lies in the presence of the two dots etched posthumously, by another hand, at the extreme upper left corner. Being the present sheet fractionally trimmed, we are not able to find the two dots but, given that the impression shows wear and appears to be late, we assume this in an impression of the fifth state (still before the posthumous rework to the artist's face happening in the sixth state).