Portrait of a man in a plumed hat

Portrait of a Man in a Plumed Hat from 1635 in the Mauritshuis combines the conventions of formal Amsterdam portraiture with the theatrical accessories of the tronie tradition, placing a fashionably dressed sitter under a hat of such dramatic extravagance that the work occupies an interesting middle position between documentary likeness and imaginative costume study. The elaborate plume was both a real fashion accessory — feathered hats of this type were worn by Amsterdam's fashionable elite — and a vehicle for technical display, the feathers requiring the kind of rapid, confident brushwork that Rembrandt had developed through his expression and character studies. The Mauritshuis holds the work in its permanent collection alongside major Dutch Golden Age portraits by other hands, where its theatrical quality can be compared with the more restrained approaches of Rembrandt's portrait competitors Thomas de Keyser and Bartholomeus van der Helst.

Rembrandt renders the plumed hat with bravura brushwork, capturing the play of light across the feather's surface while the face below is modeled with the penetrating psychological acuity of his finest portraits.