Four etched Self-Portraits (?)

This small group of etchings strongly suggest the influence of Rembrandt's self-portraits, and his character studies or tronies, with which Hollar would have been familiar from his travels in the Netherlands. The first is explicitly a self-portrait, soberly declaring his age AEtatis 40. 1647., within an elaborate frame with a coat-of-arms - initially Hollar's own in the first state, then replaced with his father's in the second. The three earlier male heads belong to a series of etchings published in the artist's Reisbüchlein (Little Travel Book) of 1636, featuring studies of regional types and clothing. George Vertue (1684–1756), the English engraver, antiquarian, and early Hollar enthusiast, was the first to suggest they were self-portraits, based on their resemblance to Jan Meyssen's portrait of the artist, which was also etched by Hollar. While Richard Godfrey accepted this identification for Man with Pointed Beard and Head of a Smiling Man, it was his opinion that Head of a Young Man depicted a different sitter.