Then Melancholy, Now Depression

Abstract

The authors identify two Rembrandt etchings of 1642, Saint Jerome in a Dark Chamber and A Scholar at a Table by Candlelight, as self-portraits. Considered with biographical data, the prints suggest that Rembrandt suffered from a bipolar personality disorder, manifest in exuberance and lavish spending in the 1630s, and then, after the death of the artist's wife, in clinical depression in the early 1640s. Depression is depicted in the prints by their dark ambiance, and the figure's pose is traditional in art to represent melancholia, one of the four classical humors conventionally ascribed to artistic genius. In addition, the authors identify as a portrait of his wife the object at which the "scholar" is looking. Although the panel is turned away from the viewer of the etching, its size, shape, and material suggest that it is a painting that survives in Kassel, Germany.