He has a thick moustache and wears a high fur cap on which there is a golden chain with precious stones and a coat of arms in the center.

He wears a reddish-brown mantle with a broad fur collar and, over it, a heavy gold chain from which the order of three horse tails, set in rich pendants, hangs on his right shoulder.

[4] Its authenticity was supported by an analysis of the panel's wood, which showed that it was cut from a tree felled around 1635 that was also used in the painter's River Landscape with Ruins (1650).

It was part of the extensive collection of Johann Karl Philipp von Cobenzl, a Carniolan nobleman who served as Maria Theresa's plenipotentiary in the Austrian Netherlands.

[6] After Cobenzl's bankruptcy, it was purchased in 1768 by Catherine II the Great and held in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

"[11][12] The National Gallery website states that it is "probably not a portrait of a specific individual", but notes a strong resemblance to Rembrandt himself and suggests in turn that it may be a self-portrait.

[13] One objection to its classification as a self-portrait, that the subject's jowls were too pronounced, was addressed by an X-ray analysis showing that Rembrandt modified the painting during the course of its creation.

[3] Marcin Łątka argues in his blog Art in Poland[14] that the painting depicts Jan Stanisław Jabłonowski who was Marshal of the extraordinary Sejm of 1637.