Self-portrait with Two Circles

Self-portrait with Two Circles
Title	Self-portrait with Two Circles
Artist	Rembrandt van Rijn
Year	ca. 1665–1669
Medium	Oil on canvas
Height cm	85
Width cm	66
Location	Kenwood House, London

Self-portrait with Two Circles is an oil-on-canvas portrait by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn created late in his career. The painting is noted for its introspective depiction of the artist and the enigmatic two circles in the background, which have prompted scholarship connecting Rembrandt to contemporaries, patrons, and earlier masters.

Description and Composition

The composition centers on an aged Rembrandt portrayed three-quarter length, wearing a beret and cloak, with a palette, brushes, and a maulstick, evoking comparisons to Michelangelo Buonarroti, Albrecht Dürer, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, and Leonardo da Vinci in discussions of painterly authority, while parallels with Anthony van Dyck, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Jacques-Louis David appear in studies of pose and gaze. The two faint circles behind the figure invite associations with Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Giotto di Bondone, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, and Pieter Saenredam in iconographic surveys, and scholars cite links to works by Hans Holbein the Younger, Giorgio Vasari, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, and Gerrit Dou when tracing compositional antecedents. The palette’s narrow tonal range and impasto nod toward techniques discussed alongside Eugène Delacroix, Thomas Couture, John Constable, J. M. W. Turner, and Édouard Manet, while the introspective subject connects to portraits of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's contemporaries such as Hendrickje Stoffels, Saskia van Uylenburgh, Carel Fabritius, Gerrit van Honthorst, and Jan Lievens.

Date and Attribution

Chronological placement around 1665–1669 emerges from stylistic comparison with authenticated late works by Rembrandt and documentary evidence linked to collectors like Sir George Beaumont, John Julius Angerstein, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Lord Lansdowne, and William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire. Attribution debates have involved mentions of Abraham Bredius, Hendrik P. Bremmer, Horst Gerson, Gerard de Lairesse, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, and Gustave Herter, while conservation-led re-attribution discussions reference specialists such as Ernst van de Wetering, Seymour Slive, Christopher Brown, Bendor Grosvenor, and Arthur Wheelock. Technical dating has been cross-checked with dendrochronology projects coordinated with institutions like the Rijksmuseum, National Gallery, London, Mauritshuis, Hermitage Museum, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Historical Context and Influences

The work emerges from the milieu of the Dutch Golden Age and the urban networks of Amsterdam, reflecting artistic, commercial, and social ties to guilds and patrons including Theodorus de Bray, Nicolaes Ruts, Constantijn Huygens, Pieter Cornelisz van Vollenhoven, Hendrick Uylenburgh, and the art market connections with Antwerp, Leiden, Delft, Haarlem, and The Hague. Intellectual currents linking Rembrandt to Spinoza, Desiderius Erasmus, Baruch Spinoza, Christiaan Huygens, Joost van den Vondel, and Constantijn Huygens the Younger appear in cultural histories, while political events such as the Eighty Years' War, the Treaty of Westphalia, and the commercial expansion of the Dutch East India Company provide background for patronage and collecting patterns. Artistic influence from Italianate and Northern models is often traced through Pieter Lastman, Adriaen van Ostade, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Philip van Dijk, and Rembrandt's pupils including Ferdinand Bol and Carel Fabritius.

Technical Analysis and Materials

Scientific study highlights layered ground, lead white, earth pigments, and brown-black glazes comparable to materials cataloged at the National Gallery of Art, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Louvre Museum, Tate Britain, and Royal Collection Trust. Pigment analyses draw parallels with inventories involving Jonathan Richardson, Gerard de Lairesse, Charles Le Brun, Antoine Watteau, and Nicolas de Largillière while varnish and binding medium studies reference analytical protocols developed by Carmen Fernández-Vega, Diane De Trimberg, Marion Mecklenburg, Nadine M. Borel, and conservation teams from The Getty Conservation Institute. Infrared reflectography, X-radiography, and cross-section microscopy reveal pentimenti resonant with working methods attributed to Rembrandt's workshop and aides such as Govaert Flinck, Nicolaes Maes, Jacob Backer, Pieter de Hooch, and Aert de Gelder.

Provenance and Exhibition History

Provenance chains cite early owners and collectors including Jan Six, Hendrik Sorgh', William IV of Orange-Nassau, Sir Robert Peel, The Duke of Marlborough, Thomas Hope, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Francis Bourgeois, and later custodians like The Earl of Iveagh and Samuel Courtauld. The painting has featured in exhibitions at major venues such as the Royal Academy of Arts, Musée du Louvre, National Gallery, London, Rijksmuseum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Prado Museum, Uffizi Gallery, and Gemäldegalerie, alongside loans to retrospectives organized by curators including Seymour Slive, Frans Grijzenhout, Ben Broos, Clara Bargellini, and Simon Schama.

Critical Reception and Legacy

Critical reception spans accounts from contemporaries and early biographers like Arnold Houbraken, Guilhelmus de Monchy, and Cornelis de Bie to modern scholarship by Ernst van de Wetering, Christopher White, Jonathan Bikker, Julius Held, Gary Schwartz, Gary Schwartz (art historian), and Patricia Emison. The painting figures in debates on portrayal and self-fashioning alongside comparisons with Diego Velázquez, Goya, Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Gerhard Richter for its influence on subsequent self-portraiture and modern notions of artistic identity. Its legacy informs pedagogy at institutions such as the Courtauld Institute of Art, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Oxford, and Leiden University and continues to shape exhibition narratives in European and American museums.

Category:Paintings by Rembrandt