Self-portrait with Tousled Hair

Rembrandt very rarely drew self-portraits. In this drawing – long regarded as a preliminary study for the nearby print – he recorded what he actually saw in the mirror: a bit of a gruff face. In the etching he added an elegant curl of hair, a ‘lovelock’, behind his shoulder, a very popular hairstyle among aristocratic dandies. So that is the image the ambitious 23-year-old Rembrandt wished to promote to the outside world.