The separated Rembrandt portraits
The Nivaagaard Collection, a short drive north of Copenhagen, has previously reunited paintings that were formerly displayed together. And they are doing it again, this time with a pair of Rembrandt portraits.
In March 2023, I wrote about the Nivaagaard Collection and how it facilitated a different reunion. The museum is known mainly for its collection of northern European Renaissance and Baroque paintings, including those by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, and Pieter Claesz. The 2023 reunion concerned a family portrait by Cornelis de Vos, which had been broken up and separated in the nineteenth century. The Nivaagaard already had one-half of the painting in its collection. With help from the Netherlands Institute for Art History, the Nivaagaard Collection reached out to a private collector to help reunite their half with the painting’s other piece. In this most recent case, the reunited paintings are not part of the same canvas but have always been two separate works meant to be displayed as companion pieces. This, however, has not been the case in over two centuries.
Dating to 1632, the pair of Rembrandt portraits, likely of a husband and wife, have been separated since 1801 after they were sold in Paris. The woman is part of the Nivaagaard permanent collection, while the man has been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1964. The Metropolitan Museum has agreed to lend their painting to the Nivaagaard, not only so the two Rembrandts can be displayed together again after 223 years, but so scholars and specialists can run scientific tests on the works together. There have long been doubts about whether or not the two are, in fact, companion pieces. These studies should answer some of these long-standing questions. The day before the planned exhibition opens to the public, the Nivaagaard Collection will host an event for a select group of art historians and technical experts from several European and American museums and research bodies, including the Nivaagaard, the Metropolitan Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the National Gallery of Denmark, the Netherlands Institute for Art History, Dendro.dk, and Art +Image.
The Rembrandt Reunited exhibition will run at the Nivaagaard Collection from September 3rd to November 10th.