  About the Artwork
  
  
  The long, curly hair, square chin, thick eyebrows, and modeled cheekbones of the young man represented here are recognizable as those of Titus van Rijn, Rembrandt’s son and only surviving child, who was born in 1641. Rembrandt documented Titus’s upbringing over the course of numerous paintings. This work seems to represent him as an adolescent, which would place this painting in the mid- to late 1650s. With its averted gaze and dramatic lighting, Bust of a Youth also projects an otherworldly mood that transcends the genre of the portrait. In fact, the artist may have used this painting as a point of departure for his Saint Matthew and the Angel of 1661, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The angel who whispers into Matthew’s ear wears the features of the young Titus.
  
  
  Title
  Bust of a Youth
  
  
  Artwork Date
  early 1660s
  
  Artist
  Circle of Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1606-1669
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Dutch
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on oak panel
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 16 × 13 3/4 inches (40.6 × 34.9 cm)
  Framed: 24 7/8 × 22 5/8 × 4 7/8 inches (63.2 × 57.5 × 12.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence P. Fisher
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  68.301
  
  
  Copyright
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