Carel FABRITIUS:This is one of two known self-portraits of Carel Fabritius. The artist wears a steel breastplate and backplate. Fabritius's teacher Rembrandt painted a number of portraits of sitters with a breastplate or gorget in the late 1620s and 1630s; but there is no indication that Rembrandt had any military connection. They were instead part of a tradition of painting sitters in fanciful costume; of which Fabritius must have been aware. In contrast to most other portraits of the time; with their plain backgrounds; the artist here places himself starkly against a cloudy sky. The picture was painted in 1654; the year Fabritius was killed in the explosion of the municipal powder magazine in his native Delft. On loan to the exhibition 鈥楥arel Fabritius' at The Mauritshuis; The Hague from September 2004 to January 2005; and the Staatliches Museum; Schwerin from Janury to May 2005.Oil on canvas;70.5 x 61.5 cm;1654London; National Gallery.