Man in plumed beret

Man in a Plumed Beret of 1659 at Frederiksborg Palace belongs to the category of Rembrandt's late works that deliberately resist easy categorization, the figure simultaneously too individualized to be pure tronie and too historically costumed to be straightforward portraiture. The plumed beret and the rich fabric of the costume are studio props whose function is partly technical — giving Rembrandt material variety to work with — and partly imaginative, summoning associations with Renaissance portraiture, military heraldry, or biblical Eastern imagery. By the late 1650s Rembrandt was producing such costume pieces partly for speculative sale on the Amsterdam open market, which had a steady demand for 'fancy pictures' alongside the commissioned portrait trade. Frederiksborg Palace in Hillerød, Denmark — a royal residence rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1859 — holds the painting in a collection that documents Scandinavian royal collecting of Dutch and Flemish art from the seventeenth century onward.

Rembrandt renders the plumed beret and costume with characteristic late freedom, the thick impasto of the feathers contrasting with the more carefully modeled face. The warm palette and dramatic chiaroscuro create an atmosphere of exotic grandeur.