Portrait of a Young Man with a Golden Chain

Rembrandt painted Portrait of a Young Man with a Golden Chain around 1635, a commissioned portrait from his period of greatest Amsterdam commercial success. In the late 1630s Rembrandt was the most sought-after portrait painter in Amsterdam, commanding high prices and producing an enormous number of commissions for the prosperous merchant and professional classes. The golden chain — an emblem of aristocratic or civic distinction — gives the young man a dignity appropriate to his evident social position, while Rembrandt's characteristic light, falling from above and to one side, illuminates the face with an intimacy that individualizes the conventional grand manner formula.

The golden chain against the dark costume and the warm flesh tones of the face demonstrate the workshop's accomplished technique, with characteristic Rembrandtesque lighting illuminating the sitter from the left.