Rembrandt van Rijn, Man with music sheet, 1633 by Atelier Liesjes

About "Rembrandt van Rijn, Man with music sheet, 1633"

by Atelier Liesjes

About the artwork

From the waist up, a bearded man with pale, peachy skin, a black wide-brimmed hat and coat, and a wide, layered, white collar, holds up a piece of rolled paper in this vertical portrait painting. His shoulders are turned to the right, but he turns his face to look at us with dark grey eyes. He has a puffy nose and his full pink lips are slightly parted. There are bags under his heavily lit eyes. A light brown birthmark marks his soft cheek, to our left, and there are jowls along his jawline. His honey-brown goatee is trimmed to a point and his brown curly hair falls to his collar. The wide brim of the hat runs slightly to our right. Layers of white fabric create a wide collar that rests against his chest and reaches almost to his shoulders. His dark coat is a field of black, interrupted only by the translucent white cuff and the hand he holds in front of his chest. The skin of that hand, his left, has a greenish glow and he wears a gold ring on his little finger. Music notation is visible on the rolled-up paper he holds loosely in that hand. He is lit from the top left, casting a shadow on the peanut-brown wall behind him. The artist signed and dated the painting near the man's shoulder, on our right: "Rembrandt f 1633."

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (Leiden, 15 July 1606 - Amsterdam, 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter, etcher and draughtsman. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest painters and etchers in European art, and as the most important Dutch master of the 17th century. His work belongs to the Baroque period and is visibly influenced by Caravaggism. His remarkable mastery of the play of light and dark, often using sharp contrasts (chiaroscuro) to draw the viewer into the scene, led to vivid scenes full of drama.