What was the secret of this gaiety?
In spite of his poverty, he had still a corner in which to paint.
Beside him stand an easel and an antique bust, perhaps a relic of his former wealth.

He holds his maul-stick in his hand, and pauses for a moment in his work.

He is happy because he can give himself up to his art." [Illustration: THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS 1634.

The Hermitage, St.Petersburg.] It was the last of half a hundred portraits of himself, painted and etched without vanity; painted because a man's self is such an accommodating model, always ready and willing; painted because Rembrandt loved to experiment with himself before a mirror, grimacing, angry, stern, "as an officer," "with a casque," "with a gorget," or, as we see him in the National Gallery, on one wall with the bloom of youth and health upon his face, on the other, dulled, stained, and marked by the finger of time.

This we can say: that he was always true to himself..