A painting a day · No. 14 of 38
Self-Portrait with Two Circles
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669)
c. 1665–1669 · Oil on canvas · Kenwood House, London
.jpg){kind=link}
The story
Rembrandt painted himself about 80 times, from young man to old. This is one of the last: bankrupt, widowed, and holding his palette and brushes, he looks straight at you.
Look closer
- The two circles on the wall behind him. Nobody knows what they mean — maps of the two halves of the world, or a painter showing he can draw a perfect circle by hand.
- His hands are barely sketched in: a few scraped strokes.
- The paint on his face is thick enough to catch the light.
Did you know
Kenwood House, on Hampstead Heath, is free to enter. This is one of the great paintings in Britain you can see without a ticket.
Why we can show it
Rembrandt van Rijn died in 1669. UK copyright lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years, so even under today’s rules this painting would have been free for anyone to show since 1740. The photograph is a faithful copy of a flat work, which creates no new copyright. We do not store the picture: it comes from Wikimedia Commons each time it is needed. More on this.