Man in a Beret

'Tronie' of a Young Man with Gorget and Beret, formerly known as Self-portrait as a young man (both with variant titles) is a tronie portrait of a young man that was traditionally regarded as one of over 40 painted self-portraits by Rembrandt. It is now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, where the most recent restoration by Daniele Rossi revealed a signature previously hidden under old varnish.

The Rembrandt Research Project and other modern scholars now doubt that it is by Rembrandt at all, although it might be an unfinished Rembrandt portrait taken over by another artist. Even more unlikely is that it is a Rembrandt self-portrait, simply on the low level of resemblance of the face to the many certain examples. It used to be dated to about 1634, on the grounds of the age of the subject, if a self-portrait, and the lack of the moustache that Rembrandt usually has for most of the 1630s.

Working in Oil on canvas at 29 7/8 x 24 3/4 in. (75.9 x 62.9 cm), Rembrandt constructs depth through value contrast rather than outline, letting figures emerge from darkness the way they would under candlelight or through a shuttered window.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. Likeness was only part of the job; the painting also had to argue for the sitter's place in the world.

Today the painting is held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it remains a touchstone for understanding Rembrandt's contribution to Western art. It has been studied, copied, restored, and argued over for centuries — proof that great paintings keep generating new readings long after their creators have gone.

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