Self-Portrait in a Cloak with a falling Collar: Bust

This intensely worked and arresting self-portrait is contemporary to the previous sheet and part of the same group of small, early face studies. Of the present plate, no impressions are known which can solely be attributed to Rembrandt. All of the nine known states show the hand of another etcher, probably Jan Gillisz. van Vliet (1605-1668), who, although a year older, became Rembrandt's pupil in their hometown of Leiden. The two cooperated during the first years of Rembrandt's career and it seems that for a while he thought of concentrating on painting and designing prints, and leaving the hard work of etching and printing to his pupil. A number of prints of this period appear to be based on Rembrandt's composition, but completed by van Vliet, as is likely the case with this portrait. At some point however, Rembrandt seems to have caught the 'printmaking bug' himself: he had discovered etching as a field worthy of exploration and it became a vital part of his own artistic practice. Rembrandt and van Vliet’s collaboration only lasted for a few years, but was not without consequence for Rembrandt, as he began to etch more forcefully and aimed for greater contrast between light and shade, in the manner of the present plate, in many of his subsequent prints.