Self-portrait Wearing a soft Cap, full Face, Head only ('Rembrandt aux trois moustaches') (only state)

Not much bigger than a modern passport photograph, this little etching depicts a very serene-looking Rembrandt. His face and cap are strongly illuminated from the right, throwing a shadow over his left shoulder; soft unruly curls tumble over his right shoulder, creating a sense of asymmetry in an otherwise frontal portrait. Although Rembrandt rendered his face and cap in great detail, he only used a few sketchy lines to hint at his collar in a shorthand manner.

There is a quiet air of serenity and contentment about this etching which is absent from his more ostentatious, bombastic self-portraits. Rembrandt etched this self-portrait in 1634, the year he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the niece of his art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh.