Selbstporträt im Alter von 34 Jahren

Self Portrait at the Age of 34

Rembrandt presents himself as wealthy, successful and confident, in keeping with his position as one of Amsterdam's leading painters. His pose is taken from Titian's Man with a Quilted Sleeve (on display elsewhere in the Gallery), which was then thought to depict the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto. Copying this famous pose was a bold statement: that painters were the equal of poets.