An in-depth exploration of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Self-Portrait, Age 23 (1629) by Rembrandt.

This book will be an in-depth examination of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Rembrandt Self-Portrait, Age 23 (1629). It will highlight one of the most important paintings in the Museum’s collection during its moment at the centre of a major season exhibition. It will accompany the exhibition The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt (co-organised by The Jewish Museum and the North Carolina Museum of Art) at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (August 6 2026 –January 18, 2027) which includes the Self-Portrait, the only work by Rembrandt not stolen from the Museum in 1990.

Nathaniel Silver will explore Isabella Stewart Gardner’s taste for Rembrandt and the acquisition of this painting as a turning point in her collecting. He will also contribute an extended catalogue entry, placing it within Rembrandt’s practice of self-portraiture throughout his career.  Conservator Lucia Bay will address Rembrandt’s technique, focusing on select details. 

Nathaniel Silver is Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and author of Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (2022), Simone Martini in Orvieto (2022), and Fra Angelico Heaven on Earth (2018).

Lucia Bay is the Associate Painting Conservator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a founder and editor for the Materia Journal for Technical Art History.