Self-Portrait with a Gorget by the studio of Rembrandt van Rijn
The Mauritshuis in The Hague has announced that three of their paintings previously classified as originals by Rembrandt can no longer be attributed as such.
The Mauritshuis contains one of the world’s greatest collections of Dutch art, including many prominent works by Rembrandt van Rijn. These include The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, Saul & David, and Man with a Feathered Beret. The museum is currently hosting the exhibition Rembrandt?, which opened on April 17th. The central focus of the show is to highlight works originally attributed to Rembrandt when the museum acquired them. But since their acquisition, these works have had those attributions withdrawn or extensively debated. With technological advances and better scholarship, the museum now has a more well-rounded picture of who created some of the paintings that art historians of decades and centuries past attributed to the Dutch Golden Age master. All three of the works on question are part of this exhibition.
Tronie of an Old Man by a student or follower of Rembrandt van Rijn
Of the three paintings, Self-Portrait with a Gorget is by far the most famous. Art historians originally believed the work to be an original created in 1629 when the artist was 23-years-old. Until the 1990s, the consensus among Dutch Golden Age art historians was that the Mauritshuis had the original, while the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg had a later copy. This began to change, however, when scans revealed underdrawings in the Mauritshuis version, something that Rembrandt rarely did. Soon, the consensus began to shift, and more scholars concluded that the Nuremberg version was, in fact, the original, while the Mauritshuis version was a copy created by Rembrandt’s studio. The announcement by the Mauritshuis last week is the conclusion of years of academic debate and scientific inquiry.
The second of the three paintings is an example of a tronie. These were a common style of figure painting during the Dutch Golden Age, where an artist would create a portrait not of a specific individual, but of a generic character. Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is an example of this style. The painting in question is a tronie of an old man previously part of the collection of Abraham Bredius, the museum’s former director. For many years, some considered the painting a portrait of Rembrandt’s father. However, an actual portrait of the artist’s father put this assumption to bed. It has been difficult to verify if the painting is an original by the artist since the work is in poor condition. The most recent tests concluded that much of the background was made using the pigment verditer, which was not available in the Netherlands around 1630. However, much of the pigment examined came from several layers of overpainting applied in the early eighteenth century. Museum specialists have not yet found the correct solvent that would allow them to remove these layers of overpainting and examine the original work. Like the self-portrait, for the time being, museum experts now say that Tronie of an Old Man was most likely created by one of Rembrandt’s students.
Study of an Old Man by a student or follower of Rembrandt van Rijn
The final painting to have its attribution rescinded was Study of an Old Man. Similarly to Tronie of an Old Man, some believed the painting shows one of the artist’s relatives, in this case his brother Adriaen. Regarding the work’s authenticity, one of the main points of contention among museum specialists was the artist’s signature. It can be faintly seen over the subject’s shoulder on the left side of the canvas. The signature appears to be Rembrandt’s authentic signature, which was applied while the paint was still wet. However, the date underneath it seems to have been added by someone else later. This and some small stylistic differences noticed after specialists completed conservation work have led Mauritshuis to believe that the work is not an original by Rembrandt. It’s also probably not a copy of an original, unlike the other two works. Rather, they think it is a painting by a member of the artist’s studio in an attempt to imitate the style of his master. Several prominent artists trained in Rembrandt’s studio, including Carel Fabritius and Isaac de Jouderville. Some point to Gerrit Dou as the most likely creator of the self-portrait. As for the others, who knows?