Self-Portrait

This is one of the latest self-portraits by Dou, depicting him at the age of approximately fifty-two. In the course of some forty years, the artist painted about a dozen self-portraits. Rembrandt, with his much more complex program of painting, drawing, and etching self-portraits throughout his career, exercised strong influence on Dou’s self-portraits. Rembrandt’s self-portrait of 1640 was, as for other Rembrandt pupils and followers, the most important model for Dou, who probably knew some of the Rembrandt school derivations as well.