Portrait of a Man Holding Gloves

Rembrandt's Portrait of a Man Holding Gloves from 1648 shows his mature portrait style at a transitional moment — the year of his greatest landscape etching, the Three Trees, and midway between his early fashionable success and his late financial and personal difficulties. By 1648, Saskia had died (1642) and Rembrandt was living with Hendrickje Stoffels, his critical and commercial position shifting as Amsterdam's portrait market moved toward younger, more fashionable painters. The held gloves were a standard portrait prop that gave the sitter's hands natural occupation; Rembrandt renders them with the loose, confident brushwork that distinguished his middle period from both his earlier precision and his later extreme freedom.

Rembrandt's technique shows the increasing breadth and confidence of his mature period, with warm, rich flesh tones and a deeper, more atmospheric treatment of the dark background. The gloves and costume are rendered with descriptive accuracy while the face is modeled with the subtle, layered approach that characterizes his greatest portraits.