Portrait of a man with a hawk

Portrait of a Man with a Hawk from 1643, in private hands, introduces an aristocratic accessory into a format that Rembrandt more typically filled with the fashionable dress of Amsterdam's merchant elite. Falconry was an aristocratic pursuit — the keeping of trained hunting hawks was an expensive and time-consuming hobby restricted by both economics and sumptuary convention to the nobility and the very wealthy — and its appearance in a Rembrandt portrait suggests either a sitter of genuine noble status or a sitter who wished to be associated with aristocratic culture. The 1643 date places the work two years after Saskia's death and during a period when Rembrandt was managing both his household and his studio with Geertje Dircx, the nurse who became his companion. The painting was one half of a pendant pair, its companion being the Portrait of a Woman with a Fan from the same year in private hands — husband and wife documented together in the conventional format.

Rembrandt renders the sitter and his hawk with characteristic warm lighting, using the bird as both a status symbol and a compositional element that adds visual and narrative interest to the portrait.