Self-Portrait at the Age of 34 marks the happiest moment in the artist's life and career.
Signed and dated on the parapet, the work presents the richly-dressed painter with a fur-lined coat, an embroidered shirt, and a large velvet hat decorated with a gold chain. Compare it with the other self-portrait in this room, which he painted at the age of sixty-three just before his death. This tired, weary painting highlights the artist's physical decline in an intimate and profoundly poetic way.
FUN FACT: Self-Portrait at the Age of 34 was inspired by a painting by Raphael that Rembrandt had seen at an auction in Amsterdam but failed to purchase. So to console himself, he decided to paint an identical one!
