Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat

1633

Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)oil on oval panel
63.7 x 50.8 cm
signed and dated in light brown paint, lower
right: “Rembrandt. fec. / 1633.”
RR-108Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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How To Cite
Manuth, Volker. "Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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Judging from the formal portraits produced by seventeenth-century artists,

Comparative Figures

one would have to conclude that the Dutch were a pretty dour people,
particularly the men. Invariably dressed in black with stiff starched collars,
the sitters in these portraits rarely invoke inner warmth or a sense of joy.
This broad overgeneralization, which to a certain extent excludes Frans
Hals (1582/83–1666), seems rather apt for the greatest portraitist of theera, Rembrandt van Rijn. Rembrandt had a remarkable ability to capture alifelike presence in his commissioned portraits, but, for the most part, one
comes away admiring the sincerity and inner strength of his sitters, nottheir ease of lifting one’s spirits through the glints in their eyes.
Set against this backdrop, Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat is
like a breath of fresh air. Here is a man not averse to twirling his
moustache upward to cast a friendly demeanor as he looks directly out atthe viewer, the crinkles around his eyes and his arched eyebrowsFig 1. Salomon Saverij (after
Rembrandt), Portrait of Philips
van Dorp, n.d., etching, 144 x 108
mm, The British Museum,London, inv. 1874,0808.2364, ©
Trustees of the British Museum

indicating that smiles easily cross his face. Even the tips of his white
starched collar rise up positively to greet the world. His robust features andample body further suggest a person who enjoys the fullness of life, bothspiritually and physically. Adding to this sense is the bold red doublet hewears, one that Rembrandt brushes with an appropriate freedom of touch,particularly in articulating the horizontal braided clasps along the garments
central divide.
Like Rembrandt’s Minerva in Her Study (RR-107), Portrait of a Man in a
Red Coat was for a long time largely unknown. It surfaced in an English

Fig 2. Abraham Bosse, The Ball,ca. 1634, gouache on parchment
on oak panel, 10.4 x 15 cm,
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin, photo: Jörg P.
Anderscollection only at the beginning of the twentieth century (see Provenance).
After Wilhelm Valentiner first published the portrait in 1930 as one of his“rediscovered Rembrandt paintings,” it circulated on the art market andwas almost inaccessible to Rembrandt researchers.[1] Largely on the basisof photographs, some authors doubted the work’s authenticity.[2] The
painting remained in relative obscurity until 1992, when its owner at thetime drew it to the attention of the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP).
After thorough examination of the original in 1994 and 1997, the RRP
judged the portrait, on both technical and stylistic grounds, to be anauthentic work by Rembrandt.[3]Fig 3. Abraham Bosse, The
Noble Painter, ca. 1642, etching,
25 x 32 cm, The Metropolitan
Museum, New York, Bequest of
Phyllis Massar, 2011,2012.136.16

Stylistically as well as technically, Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat is in
keeping with Rembrandt’s portraits of the early 1630s, at which time hesought to achieve great spatial depth and plasticity in his figures. Here, he© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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achieved this effect by rendering physiognomic details, such as the hairand facial wrinkles, with utmost meticulousness, while executing the
braided fastenings on the red jacket in a much sketchier manner. Anothertypical feature is the way he set off the contour of the most brightly lit form(in this case the collar) from the dark background.[4] On the other hand, hejuxtaposed the shaded portion of the collar with the bright part of the
background. Another means of heightening the illusion of depth was toleave the sitter’s foremost arm partly in shadow. The strongly illuminatedshoulder forms a repoussoir, at the same time amplifying the effect of thelight hitting the collar and the face. Finally, the form of the signature andthe way it is rendered with a mixture of dark paint and lead white are
typical of Rembrandt in this period.[5]The oak of the panel comes from the Baltic-Polish region and corresponds
to

a

type

of

wood

frequently

used

in

Rembrandt’s

Fig 4. Click on image to
see proposed pendant at right:
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of aYoung Woman, 1633, oil on panel(oval), 65.4 x 48.9 cm, The
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,inv. 2004.33

studio.

Dendrochronological research has shown that the tree could not havebeen felled before 1629, which means that in theory the panel—after aperiod of at least two years for aging or drying—could have been ready for
use after 1631.[6] The panel consists of two parts: a wider plank (37.8 cm)
and a narrower one (13 cm). For his portraits and tronies Rembrandt often
used panels composed of planks of different widths so that the seamwould not run through the face. Although the oval format was popular for
portraits around 1633,[7] Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat seems originallyto have had an upright rectangular shape, which was later changed into an
oval. The back of the panel is planed and cradled, whereas a panel thatwas originally oval would show beveling that followed its oval shape. It is
probable that the portrait was originally surrounded by an oval “window,”such as Rembrandt often painted on rectangular supports (see SelfPortrait with Shaded Eyes, RR-110), and that the panel was later cut into
an oval shape along the inner edge of this painted “window.”[8]Rembrandt generally designed his compositions with a free sketch rather
than with an elaborate underdrawing. A close comparison of the paintsurface and the X-radiograph in this portrait makes it is clear that
Rembrandt painted the background first, leaving a reserve for the figure.
The contours of the figure, especially in the area of the hair and the collar,
often deviate from the reserve. Rembrandt has here made a number ofpainted corrections, or pentimenti, as in, for example, the shape of theright shoulder, which was originally higher.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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An unusual aspect of this painting is the sitter’s conspicuous red coat, very
different from the black attire generally seen in portraiture of the 1630s. A
red coat with red braided fastenings on the front and the sleeves was atthat time associated with the military, and for this reason Valentiner
assumed that the sitter was a member of the military.[9] In support of thistheory, he referred to similar braided clasps in the portrait of Philips van
Dorp (1587–1652), an officer in the service of the States General, known
from a print by Salomon Saverij (1594–ca. 1678) (fig 1). Saverij’s etching
bears an inscription claiming that it was made after a (lost) portrait byRembrandt of 1634. Red coats (including one with braided fastenings) arelisted in a 1638 inventory of Floris II, Count of Culemborg, one of thehighest ranking officers in the Northern Netherlands.[10] A Portrait of an
Unknown Officer by Isaack Jacobsz van Hooren (1620–52) of 1646
depicts the sitter in a red coat with braided clasps along with other military
accessories, including a plumed hat, gorget, and rapier attached to the
bandolier [11].
Significantly, these last pictorial elements are lacking in Rembrandt’sPortrait of a Man in a Red Coat , and without them it is impossible to say
with certainty that the sitter was actually a member of the military. The
coat’s red color and braiding and the wide, starched linen collar also occur
in contemporary fashions, not only in the Netherlands, but also in France,
England and Germany.[12] For example, a gouache dated around 1634 by
the French engraver Abraham Bosse shows a dancing man wearing asimilar costume (fig 2),[13] as does the elegant painter in his studio in a
print dating from 1642 (fig 3). The painter wears a collar identical to theone worn by the man in Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Man in a Red
Coat.[14] The hairstyle—with pipe curls over the ears and a lock of hair on
the forehead—and the moustache with its twisted ends reflect Spanish
fashions, but, as with the man’s wardrobe, these styles were to be found
all over Europe. The international character of the man’s appearance has
led to speculations that the sitter was either a foreigner or a Dutchman who
moved in international circles.[15]The manner in which the man turns to the right suggests that the portrait
originally had a female pendant, which Valentiner assumed to be thePortrait of a Young Woman , likewise dated 1633.[16] This hypothesis wasrightly questioned in the Corpus. Its authors point out that although thedimensions of the two works are nearly the same, the woman’s portrait is© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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painted on a different kind of wood, the panel consists of three planks, andit was originally oval in shape.[17] Furthermore, the authors argued that the
woman’s portrait is unlikely to have been the painting’s pendant because it
was executed by a studio assistant and not by the master.[18] Other
reasons exist for rejecting the woman’s portrait as this painting’s
companion piece: her dark clothes, with the white cap and the large
pleated ruff, are typical of the conservative Dutch middle class andcontrast with the stylish and colorful costume of her supposed mate.
A much more suitable candidate for the pendant toPortrait of a Man in a
Red Coat is a female portrait, also dated 1633, in the Museum of Fine Artsin Houston (fig 4).[19] The sitter’s black gown with slashed sleeves is set
off by a colorful ribbon around her waist. The gown, the collar, and thehairstyle
France.

[20]

likewiseconformtothefashions

then

prevailingin

Moreover, the oval support of the female portrait in Houston isnearly identical in size to Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat . Originally it, too,
was probably rectangular in shape and only later made into an
oval.[21] Although the woman is more subtle and more delicately modeled
than the man in Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat , pendants portraying
young women are often more delicately executed than those of their malecounterparts.[21] Not only do their facial features and skin require different
handling of the paint, but also the light coming from the left falls frontally on
the woman’s face. The man’s face, which is turned to the right, is partly inshadow, and, as a result, his physicality is emphasized. With or without
this purported pendant, however, this distinctive gentleman has acompelling presence that fully engages the viewer. Perhaps someday wewill learn more about him and his life’s story.

-Volker Manuth© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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Endnotes
1. Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Rediscovered Rembrandt Paintings,” Burlington Magazine 57(1930): 260, 265. Neither Horst Gerson (Rembrandt: Paintings [Amsterdam, 1968], 280–81,
494, no. 151) nor Kurt Bauch (Rembrandt: Gemälde [Berlin, 1966], 19, no. 364) had seen
the original painting when they published their respective catalogues.
2. Neither Schwartz in 1984 nor Slatkes in 1992 included the painting in their catalogues ofRembrandt’s paintings. Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt, His Life, His Paintings: A New
Biography with All Accessible Paintings Illustrated in Colour (New York, 1985). Leonard
Slatkes, Rembrandt: Catalogo completo dei dipinti (Florence, 1992). Tümpel in 1986 (aswell as in the English edition of 1993) rejects the painting as an autograph Rembrandt andattributes it instead to a pupil. See Christian Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings inColour (Antwerp, 1993), 431–32, no. A83.
3. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol.
4, Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2005), Addendum 4, 638–46.
4. Cf. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings ,vol. 2, 1631–1634, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and Lancaster, 1986), A 45, A
48, A 58, A 59, A 78.
5. This mixture of paints was probably used to tone down what would otherwise be too harsh acontrast with the background, which is bright in this place. For other examples, see Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4, SelfPortraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2005), Addendum 4, 640–41, andA Corpus
of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, andLancaster, 1986), chapter 5, 99–106.
6. Only the broader panel was able to be examined by Peter Klein. For this and the following
information on the panel, see Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project,A Corpus
of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4, Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2005),
Addendum 4, 640–42.
7. Rembrandt painted his first portrait on an oval support in 1632: Portrait of Harder Rijcksen,
1632, oil on panel, 64 x 47 cm, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen, on loan from the Peterand Irene Ludwig Stiftung. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, andLancaster, 1986), no. A 60 (as unknown sitter). On the popularity of the oval format for
portraits in the 1630s, see Pieter J. J. van Thiel and Cornelis J. de Bruyn Kops,Prijst de lijst:
De Hollandse schilderijlijst in de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum)(The Hague, 1984), 118.
8. Painted framings of this kind, which occur quite often in Rembrandt’s work, possibly served© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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as a guide for the frame maker. Comparable framing (painted or even scratched in the wet
paint) occurs in other Rembrandt paintings. See, for example,Christ and the Woman Taken
in Adultery of 1644 in London (Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project,A Corpus
of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 5, Small-Scale History Paintings, ed. Ernst van de Wetering[Dordrecht, 2011], no. 3); The Holy Family of 1645 in St. Petersburg (A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 5, Small-Scale History Paintings, ed. Ernst van de Wetering[Dordrecht, 2011], no. 4); the Self-Portrait of 1669 in The Hague (A Corpus of Rembrandt
Paintings, vol. 4, Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering [Dordrecht, 2005], no. 29); andthe Self-Portrait as St. Paul of 1661 in Amsterdam (A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol.
4, Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering [Dordrecht, 2005], no. 24).
9. Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Rediscovered Rembrandt Paintings,” Burlington Magazine 57(1930): 260, 265.
10. Gelders Archief, Arnhem, no. 0370, Archief van de heren en graven van Culemborg, no.
393: Inventaris van sijne Genadens cleederen die bevonden zijn in sijner Genadens
cleederencamer tot Culemborch op de IIde September 1638: “Een root sattijnen wambaes
geborduert met goude banden van goudt en silver; Ein Hongerlein van rott laken vol gebort
met gouden galunn en lyßen, met pels gevoert; Een roode kasaque met goude knoppen” (Ared satin doublet embroidered with gold and silver laces; A fur-lined coat in the Hungarianstyle of red cloth embroidered with gold galloon and frogging; A red cassock with gold
buttons).
11. Isaack Jacobsz van Hooren, Portrait of an Unknown Officer , 1646, oil on panel, 16.6 x 12.7
cm, sale, Christie’s Amsterdam, 29 November 1988, lot 164.
12. A surviving example made of red velvet, which dates from ca. 1632 and was allegedly wornby Count Tilly (1559–1632) in the Thirty Years’ War, is preserved in the Bayerisches
National Museum in Munich. See Max von Boehn, Mode and Manners, trans. Joan Joshua,
2 vols. (New York, 1971), 2:73 ill. On the influence of military dress on fashion, see Ruth
Bleckwenn, “Beziehungen zwischen Soldatentracht und ziviler modischer Kleidung zwischen 1500 und 1650,” Zeitschrift für historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde 16 (1974):
107–18.
13. As mentioned in Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4, Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2005),
Addendum 4, 646 n. 10.
14. In France, such collars were usually trimmed with a wide edge of bobbin lace.
15. In 1966 Bauch (Kurt Bauch, Rembrandt: Gemälde [Berlin, 1966], 19, no. 364) hypothesizedthat this picture was a portrait of the painter Jacob Adriaensz Backer (1608–51). Thissuggestion was rightly rejected, as Backer was only 25 years old in 1633 and therefore
younger than the man depicted. Furthermore, Backer, with his Mennonite background,would never have donned such a colorful coat. The Mennonites, who were antimilitary and© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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particularly conservative with regard to their outward appearance, dressed mostly in simple,
dark clothing.
16. Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Rediscovered Rembrandt Paintings,” Burlington Magazine 57(1930): 265
17. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol.
2, 1631–1634, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and Lancaster, 1986), C 81.
Relying on the sapwood statistics for Eastern Europe, Peter Klein established an earliest
felling date of 1628 for this panel. Adding to that a minimum seasoning time of two years, thisportrait could not have been painted before 1630.
18. Jaap van der Veen, however, has correctly observed that this argument is not conclusive
because sometimes the master would paint a portrait and a pupil its pendant. See Jaap van
der Veen, “Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Art Business, Production, and Trade Between 1625 and
1655,” in Uylenburgh & Son: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse , ed. Friso
Lammertse and Jaap van der Veen (Exh. cat. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; Amsterdam,
Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (Zwolle, 2006), 145. See, for example, the pendants of aseated man and woman of ca. 1632 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, both painted
on identical walnut panels. The portrait of the man, attributed to Rembrandt, is unlike that of
the woman. See Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, andLancaster, 1986), A 45 and C 80.
19. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol.
2, 1631–1634, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and Lancaster, 1986), A 84. The
opinion that this portrait of a woman could be the companion piece to thePortrait of a Man in
a Red Coat was also noted by George Keyes in Rembrandt in America: Collecting andConnoisseurship, ed. George Keyes, Tom Rassieur, and Dennis P. Weller (Exh. cat.
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art; Minneapolis,
Minneapolis Institute of Arts) (New York, 2011), 117, 138, n. 7.
20. Compare the dress of the dancing lady in Abraham Bosse’s gouache (see fig. 3).
21. The most important reason for this assumption is the oddly slanting position of the female
figure in the oval picture field, as a result of which the earrings do not hang vertically, whichindicates that the panel was cut down to its oval shape only after it was painted. This support
is not beveled all around either. See Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project,A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht,
Boston, and Lancaster, 1986), A 84. Unfortunately, this is one of the very few paintings by
Rembrandt that has not yet undergone dendrochronological examination. It is therefore
impossible to ascertain whether the panels came from the same tree.
22. Even in pendants in which the woman is older than the man, as seen in the portraits of Dirck
Jansz Pesser (Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. [Dordrecht, Boston, and Lancaster,1986], A102, Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and Haesje van Cleyburg (ibid., A103,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), both of 1634, Rembrandt typically painted the male portrait in amuch broader style than that of the woman.

Provenance
Sir Philip John William Miles, 2nd Baronet (1825–88), Leigh Court, Somerset; by descent tohis eldest daughter, Alice Catherine Miles, wife of Lt. Colonel Gerard Vivian Ames, of theHyde, Herfordshire; by descent to their son, Captain Lionel Gerard Ames (born 1889)[Vicars Brothers, London, 1929; The Howard Young Galleries, New York, 1930].
David Loew, Beverly Hills [Findlay Gallery, New York, 1954].
Amon G. Carter Sr., Fort Worth, Texas, from 1954, and by descent to his third wife, Minnie
Meacham Smith (sale Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 1998, no. 18).
Dr. Alfred Bader, on behalf of Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, 1999.
The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts, Las Vegas, 1999 (sale, Christie’s, New York, 26 January
2001, no. 81 [Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht, until 2008]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2008.

Exhibition History
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, “The Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Master Paintings by
Rembrandt,” 2–31 May 1930, no. 23 [lent by Howard Young Galleries, New York].
Newark, Newark Museum, “Art and Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt,” 30
September 2001–20 January 2002; Denver, Denver Art Museum, 2 March–26 May 2002,
no. 17a [lent by Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht].
Kyoto, National Museum, “Rembrandt Rembrandt,” 3 November 2002–8 January 2003;
Frankfurt-am-Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, 1 February–11 May 2003, no. 19 and 21 [lentby Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht].
Vienna, Albertina, “Rembrandt,” 24 March–27 June 2004, no. 82 [lent by Noortman Master
Paintings, Maastricht].
London, Dulwich Picture Gallery “Rembrandt & Co.: Dealing in Masterpieces,” 27 June–3
September 2006; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, “Rembrandt en Uylenburgh,
handel in meesterwerken,” 16 September–10 December 2006 [lent by Noortman Master© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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Paintings, Maastricht].
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, on loan with the permanent collection, June 2008–July 2011
[lent by the present owner].
Greenwich,Conn.,

Bruce

Museum,

on

loan

with

the

permanentcollection,

September–October 2011 [lent by the present owner].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art “Rembrandt in America: Collecting andConnoisseurship,” 30 October 2011–22 January 2012; Cleveland, Cleveland Museum ofArt, 19 February–28 May 2012; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 24 June–16
September 2012, no. 182 [lent by the present owner].
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, on loan with the permanent collection, September
2012–2015 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,”
22 February–22 May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Paintings by Rembrandt . Exh. cat. Detroit,
Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, no. 23.
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. “Rediscovered Rembrandt Paintings.”

Magazine 57 (December

1930): 260–65, no. 3A.
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Rembrandt Paintings in America. New York, 1931, no. 37.
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt: Gemälde, 630 Abbildungen. Vienna, 1935, no. 176.
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt: Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, 19, no. 364.
Gerson, Horst. Rembrandt: Paintings. Amsterdam, 1968, 280–81, 494, no. 151.
Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. London, 1937, 10, no. 176. Reprinted as
Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings . With revisions and notes by Horst
Gerson. London, 1969, 151, 562, no. 176.
Arpino, Giovanni and Lecaldano, Paolo. L’opera pittorica complete di Rembrandt . Milan,
1969, 100–1, no. 127.
Martin, Gregory and Lecaldano, Paolo. The Complete Paintings of Rembrandt . London,
1969, 100–1, no. 127.
Dony, Frans L. M. and Braun, Karel. Meesters der Schilderkunst: Alle tot nu toe bekende
schilderijen van Rembrandt, en een beknopt overzicht van zijn voornaamste werk als etser© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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en tekenaar. Rotterdam, 1969, 96–97, no. 127.
Bolten, Jaap and Bolten-Rempt, Henriette. The Hidden Rembrandt. Oxford, 1978, 181, no.
171.
Tümpel, Christian and Tümpel, Astrid. Rembrandt: Mythos und Methode. Antwerp, 1986,
429, no. A83, as by a pupil of Rembrandt.
Tümpel, Christian. Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour . Antwerp, 1993, 431–32, no. A83, as
by a pupil of Rembrandt.
Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings . Vol.
4, Self-Portraits. Edited by Ernst van de Wetering. Dordrecht, 2005, 638–46, no. 1633.
Sutton, Peter C. “Portrait of a Man in a Red Doublet.” In Otto Naumann: Old Master
Paintings, 74–77, no. 25. Sales cat. Otto Naumann Ltd., New York. New York, 1999.
Haverkamp-Begemann, Egbert. “Portrait of a Man in a Red Doublet.” In The Bellagio
Gallery of Fine Art: European and American Masters. Edited by Libby Lumpkin, 26–31. Las
Vegas, 1999.
Westermann, Mariët, ed. Art and Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt . Exh. cat.
Denver, Denver Art Museum; Newark, Newark Museum. Zwolle, 2002, 153, 163, no. 17a.
Giltaij, Jeroen, ed. Rembrandt, Rembrandt. Exh. cat. Kyoto, Kyoto National Museum;Frankfurt am Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städelsche Galerie. Hakkō, 2002, 80–81,
no. 21.
Bisanz-Prakken, Marian and Schröder, Albrecht, eds. Rembrandt. Exh. cat. Vienna,
Albertina. Wolfratshausen, 2004, 196–97, no. 82.
Schavemaker, Eddy. Noortman: One Hundred Master Paintings . Sales cat. Maastricht,
Noortman Master Paintings. Maastricht, 2003, 54–59, no. 18.
Van der Veen, Jaap. “Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Art Business, Production, and Trade Between
1625 and 1655.” In Uylenburgh & Son: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De
Lairesse. Edited by F. Lammertse and J. van der Veen, 145–46. Exh. cat. London, Dulwich
Picture Gallery; Amsterdam, Museum het Rembrandthuis. Zwolle, 2006.
Keyes, George, Rassieur, Tom and Weller, Dennis P., eds. Rembrandt in America:
Collecting and Connoisseurship.

Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art;

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. New York2011, 128, nos. 16, 182.

Technical Summary
The support, an oval composite panel, comprises two vertically grained oak planks of unequal
widths.[1] The vertical panel join runs through the background to the figure’s right.[2] The panel
has no bevels and has been cradled. Ernst van der Wetering speculates in the Rembrandt© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Research Project Corpus entry for this painting that, although the portrait was painted as anoval, the panel was originally rectangular, since the orientation of the oval panel and the ovalcomposition are slightly askew.[3] The panel reverse has three numerical inscriptions but no wax
seals, stencils, import stamps, labels or panel maker’s marks.
Analyses of a paint cross-section from the lower edge revealed a double ground: a lower layer
containing chalk, yellowed by the binder, and an upper layer containing lumps of lead white anda little ocher in an oleaginous binder followed by a thin transparent brown imprimatura.[4] The
imprimatura remains visible in areas along the outermost edge of the upper right corner andalong the lower right corner where the background and red doublet meet. The paint has beensmoothly applied with short strokes of low brushmarking through the background, with tworaised horizontal strokes of white highlight, which accentuate the lower edge of the white collar,
and thicker paint through the figure’s face, particularly his nose.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at
780–1000 nanometers.
The painting is signed and dated in light brown paint along the lower right.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2008 and remains
in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Peter Klein’s dendrochronology report. Only
the wider plank could be analyzed and dated.
2. The left plank is 37.8 cm wide and the right is 13 cm wide.
3. In Addendum 2 of Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4, Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2005). In
comment 2 of the Corpus entry, Van de Wetering states, “The longitudinal axis of the panel
is somewhat longer than that of the painted oval. Consequently the ground and traces ofbrown underpainting along the upper and lower edges (gradually narrowing at the sides)
were never covered with the paint with which the background and the red costume werepainted.”4. See Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt
Paintings, vol. 1, 1625–1631, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (The Hague, Boston, and London,
1982), 17–19.

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Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat
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