Self-Portrait, Laughing Out Loud
From the Whatifs Catalogue, the encyclopedia of paintings that never were
This article is fiction. Rembrandt never painted this work. The image was generated by AI and the story below, including its discovery and sale, is invented.
Self-Portrait, Laughing Out Loud is an imagined painting attributed, within the Whatifs fiction, to Rembrandt (1669). It belongs to the Whatifs series of works the great masters never painted.
History and rediscovery
Painted months before his death, bankrupt, Rembrandt shows himself roaring with laughter. His pupil Aert de Gelder called it "a mocking testament". Deemed indecent, the canvas was cut in two in the 18th century. The halves, one in Vienna, the other in a Maine attic, were reunited in 2024 thanks to matching canvas threads.
Sale
Within the fiction, the painting sold for £73,000,000 (2025). Tap the board to replay the imagined bidding. The auction pictured below never took place.
See also
- The Refused Kiss, Gustav Klimt
- The Old Port of Marseille, Vincent van Gogh
- The Painter from Behind, Without a Model, Johannes Vermeer
Notes
- Image generated with AI from a prompt written by Whatifs. No real painting, signature or auction house is reproduced.
- Story written for Whatifs. Any resemblance to real discoveries is coincidental.
