Self-Portrait Drawing at a Window

Self-Portrait Drawing at a Window — Rembrandt van Rijn. 1648.

Medium: etching, drypoint, and engraving. Dimensions: Sheet: 17.3 x 14.5 cm (6 13/16 x 5 11/16 in.); Platemark: 15.6 x 12.9 cm (6 1/8 x 5 1/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

In this late self-portrait—one of more than 80 created by Rembrandt van Rijn—the artist shows himself informally posed at a studio window. He uses a needle to draw into a copper etching plate and gazes directly at the viewer as if interrupted in the process of creating a work of art. The window provides the light required to complete this task, but it also reveals the isolation of art making by juxtaposing Rembrandt’s interior space with the expansive landscape and external world from which he has sequestered himself.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.