Portrait of a Man, probably a Member of the Van Beresteyn Family

Portrait of a Man, probably a Member of the Van Beresteyn Family is an oil-on-canvas 1632 portrait painting by Rembrandt. It shows a man with a lace collar, which was a new fashion in the 1630s replacing older-styled millstone collars. It is pendant to Portrait of a Woman, probably a Member of the Van Beresteyn Family, and both are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Created in 1632 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Rembrandt worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 44 x 35 in. (111.8 x 88.9 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Rembrandt builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”