© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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Bust of a Bearded Old Man
Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)1633
oil on paper, mounted on panel
8.9 x 6.4 cm
signed and dated along top: “Rembrandt
1633”
RR-116

How to cite
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Bust of a Bearded Old Man” (2019). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/bust-of-abearded-old-man/ (archived May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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Situated close to the picture plane, head turned sharply and eyes castComparative Figures

downward, the elderly man depicted in Rembrandt’s small, monochromaticoil sketch pulsates with life. With his lips slightly parted and his body seeming
to rise with a passing breath, he occupies a world that is nearly the viewer’s
own. Rembrandt’s vigorous brushstrokes animate the sitter’s psychologicalbeing and physical presence, making this bust-length image seem far larger
than it is in reality. Light streaming in from the upper left falls on the right sideof the elderly man’s face and models his three-dimensional form. His eyes
are open and alert as they focus intensely upon something beyond thecomposition. Rembrandt emphasized the sitter’s emotional energy throughthe rhythmic interplay of grays and browns, adding ocher and white accentsthat appear on the subject’s wiry beard and the curly hair tumbling over his
forehead.

Bothdelicate

andpowerful,

Bust

of

a

BeardedOld

Man encapsulates the profound humanity of Rembrandt’s finest works.
Bust of a Bearded Old Man is Rembrandt’s smallest known painting, and theonly grisaille by the artist in private hands.[1] The deep resonance it carries
for the beholder arises from an extraordinary paradox: its size—it fits in thepalm of one’s hand—belies its monumentality. As Wilhelm Martin, who was

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Old
Man Seated with Folded Hands,
ca. 1631, black and red chalk on
reddish-yellow washed paper,
incised, 22.6 x 15.7 cm,
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche
Museen, Berlin, Germany, inv. no.
KDZ 1151, bpk Bildagentur /Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche
Museen / Art Resource, NY.

then director of the Mauritshuis, noted in 1923, all of Rembrandt’s“prodigious virtuosity” is found in the power of the bearded man’s face.[2] The
painting was at that point in the collection of Baron Leon Janssen in
Brussels, but Martin would not forget it, and when the painting was auctioned
in 1927 after the Baron’s death, the Mauritshuis actively sought to acquire it.
The museum, however, was outbid by Knoedler’s, which immediately
offered the painting to Andrew W. Mellon, noting in its letter to Mellon, “Thisis considered by the greatest connoisseurs of Rembrandt as one of his
greatest gems.”[3]Rembrandt’s interest in depicting the physical and psychological characterof aging men and women emerged in the late 1620s, when he was a young
artist in Leiden, and continued unabated throughout his life. The elderly,
whether family members, models in his studio, or random figures he

Fig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn, Old
Man with Beard Facing
Downwards, Three Quarters, tothe Right, 1631, etching withannotations in pen, 12 x 18 cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no.
RP-P-1959-667.

encountered conversing on street corners, clearly fascinated Rembrandt for
their expressive physical qualities and underlying humanity.[4] He madeindividual character studies, or tronies, of the elderly in drawings, etchings,
and paintings, and these works often served as inspiration for figures in his
biblical and mythological scenes.[5]Rembrandt painted Bust of a Bearded Old Man in 1633, shortly after he had© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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settled in Amsterdam, revisiting—and in many ways reinventing—a figural typethat had preoccupied him when he was in Leiden. In a group of drawings andetchings that he executed in 1630 and 1631, Rembrandt depicted an elderly
man with a thick, wiry beard, large forehead, and distinctive features.[6] A
core image from this group is a red-chalk drawing of the figure seen fulllength and gazing downward as he sits in an armchair with hands folded in
his lap (fig 1).[7] The drawing is a masterly depiction of mood, not only
because of the elderly man’s reflective pose but also because of the strong
contrasts of light and shade that play out in rich variations of red chalk. The
related etchings that Rembrandt made in 1630–31 are bust-length images
that focus on the bearded man’s head and upper body (fig 2).[8] In each ofthese etchings, Rembrandt subtly varied the man’s pose by changing theangle of his head and altering the length and texture of his beard. The loose
and fluid lines of the etching needle enhance the plasticity of the figure. Most

Fig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, Ecce
Homo, 1634, oil on paper mounted
onto canvas, 54.4 x 44.5 cm,
National Gallery, London, bought
1894, inv. no. NG1400, © National
Gallery, London / Art Resource,NY.

importantly, Rembrandt adjusted the intensity and focus of his chiaroscuro
effects to convey a different psychological state of mind in each of theetchings.[9]Bust of a Bearded Old Man transcends Rembrandt’s depictions of theelderly man seen in the earlier etchings. Boldly executed, the figure in this oil
sketch fills the composition, his darkened forearm extending beyond thepicture plane. The man’s physical appearance is also somewhat different, as
curly hair now falls over his wrinkled forehead, visually evoking his active
mind and emotional energy. Rembrandt created this tronie with great
assuredness and seeming speed, laying out the entire composition alla
prima and making no changes during the painting process.[10] He exploitedthe physical characteristics of paint, oscillating between controlled refinement
and loose, textured bravura. For example, while thick, fluid strokes define theFig 4. Rembrandt van Rijn,
Drawing from Album amicorum II
van Burchard Grossman, 1634,
pen and brown ink with wash, 8.9
x 7.1 cm, Koninklijke Bibliotheek,
National Library of theNetherlands, The Hague.

man’s sleeve, the ground layer remains visible in other parts of his robe andhair. It is unlikely, however, that Rembrandt painted this image directly fromlife (naar het leven). His adaptation of a figural motif developed in Leiden
suggests that he rendered it uit den gheest, or from his imagination,nevertheless imbuing it with the sensitivity and immediacy of a life study.[11]Scholars have consistently remarked on the extraordinary character of Bustof a Bearded Old Man, although the small size of this grisaille oil sketch andits unusual support—paper mounted on panel—have elicited a number ofFig 5. Rembrandt van Rijn’s Bustof a Bearded Old Man, 1633,
displayed in a velvet travel box
commissioned by Andrew Mellon.

differing opinions about its original function.[12] In 1968, Horst Gersonsuggested that the painting represented “a fragment of a grisaille sketch,”but the integrity of the composition as a whole and its “self-contained” natureargue otherwise.[13] The bold black lines that surround the composition,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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which act as a kind of framing device, as well as the brushstrokes that
extend confidently along the edges of the paper, indicate that the painting
has not been reduced in size.[14]In the 1980s, Bob Haak and Josua Bruyn, members of the Rembrandt
Research Project, suggested that, because of its size and paper support,
Bust of a Bearded Old Man may have been intended as a preparatory oil
sketch, or modello, for an etching or engraving.[15] The limited tones of
blacks, whites, and grays in grisaille were beneficial for working out thedesign of a print, particularly in the depiction of light and shadow.[16] Artists
and printmakers employed this practice regularly in the Netherlands in thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Rembrandt himself used it on atleast one occasion. The Ecce Homo from 1634 (fig 3), which he executed ingrisaille, was transferred directly onto an etching plate.[17] Rembrandt
produced several other grisaille sketches in the mid-1630s, including Joseph
Telling His Dreams, 1634 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), but it is unclear
whether they were also designs intended for prints, as no corresponding
etchings for any of them survive.[18] The narrative subject matter, multifiguralcomposition, and coarse handling of these grisailles, however, share little
with the character of Bust of a Bearded Old Man, whose powerful ability tomove the viewer—in its painterly technique and emotional spirit—suggests that
Rembrandt intended it as an independent work of art.[19]Haak and Bruyn also proposed that Rembrandt may have painted Bust of a
Bearded Old Man for an album amicorum, or friendship album.[20] Theysuggested that this context could explain the painting’s large signature anddate, and paper support.[21] Their point of reference was a pen-and-washdrawing of an old man that Rembrandt executed for the Album amicorum II
van Burchard Grossmann in 1634 (fig 4).[22] Depicted half length and in threequarter view, the drawing of a bearded man, with his head turned and his left
arm placed prominently in the foreground, bears a number of similarities toBust of a Bearded Old Man. Yet this delicate drawing, which is accompanied
by a moralizing inscription, has an entirely different character than the oil
sketch in The Leiden Collection.[23] Moreover, as Albert Blankert has rightly
argued, the physical character of an oil painting, particularly in a work
painted with this rich impasto, makes it unlikely that it was intended for thepages of an album amicorum.[24]The confident, self-contained nature of Bust of a Bearded Old Man argues
strongly that Rembrandt painted this remarkable oil sketch as anindependent work of art. Intimately connected to his ongoing interest in© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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depicting reflective, elderly men, the painting is one of Rembrandt’s mostcompelling explorations of the physical and psychological character of such
figures. By executing this study in grisaille, Rembrandt captured subtleties ofform, light, and shade in unparalleled ways, evoking the inner life andindividuality of this expressive sitter. Bust of a Bearded Old Man is
exceptional for its visual power and masterly technique, and for the way itallows the viewer to look closely and reflect deeply about the humanemotions so poignantly captured in this small masterpiece.
Bust of a Bearded Old Man carries an illustrious provenance that stretches
back to the late eighteenth century. One of its most important owners was
Andrew W. Mellon, who acquired the painting from Knoedler’s in 1928, andit immediately became one of the jewels of his collection.[25] Mellon had a
special velvet-encased travel box made for the painting, which still exists (fig5). It is rumored that he carried the work with him everywhere he went andotherwise displayed it on his desk. Bust of a Bearded Old Man captivated thepresent collector over fifteen years ago when he first saw it in an exhibition at
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[26] and, like Wilhelm Martin, he never forgot
it. He was finally able to acquire it in 2018, and this small gem is now one ofthe pinnacles of The Leiden Collection’s extensive assemblage of works by
Rembrandt.

- Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2019

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes

1. For a discussion of Rembrandt’s other works in grisaille, see below.
2. Wilhelm Martin described the painting in the collection of Baron Janssen in Brussels in 1923
as “toute la prodigieuse virtuosité du maître se trahit dans cette tête puissante.” Wilhelm
Martin, Catalogue de la Collection de Peintures du Baron Janssen a Bruxelles (Brussels,
1923), no. 94.
3. The letter continues, “It is the smallest painting by the artist to exist and has a very
distinguished pedigree, which will be sent to you when we render our bill in due course. It is aunique little picture of the very highest possible quality—signed and dated. The great Museum
who were the under-bidders own twenty of the finest works in existence by the Master, which
will give you an idea how much they prize this little gem.” The letter, dated June 8, 1928, waswritten by Carman H. Messmore, who was then an art dealer with Knoedler & Co. GRI Digital
Collections, M. Knoedler & Co., Letter copying book: Domestic letters, 1928 May 22–1928
September 7, leaf 170, http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2012m54b1434 (accessed January 11,2019).
4. See, for example, Christiaan Vogelaar and Gerbrand Korevaar, eds., Rembrandt’s Mother:
Myth and Reality (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Leiden, 2005).
5. See, for example, Two Old Men Disputing, 1628 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne);
Head of an Old Man Wearing a Cap, ca. 1630 (Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s
University, Kingston); and Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, 1630
(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Rembrandt shared this interest with Jan Lievens; see, forinstance, Lievens’s Bearded Man in a Beret, ca. 1630 (National Gallery of Art, Washington,
D.C.).
6. For the etchings, see discussion below. For Rembrandt’s drawings of old men in red chalk,
see Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 1:
no. 20, fig. 20, no. 40, fig. 40, no. 41, fig. 50; Martin Royalton-Kisch, “The Drawings ofRembrandt:

A

Revisionof

Otto

Benesch’s

Catalogue

Raisonné,” www.rembrandtcatalogue.net. For further discussion, see Holm Bevers, Peter
Schatborn, and Barbara Welzel, Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop: Drawings andEtchings (Exh. cat. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Altes Museum; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; London, National Gallery) (New Haven, 1991),
26–28.
7. The related red-chalk drawings of this figure study are Old Man Seated, 1630 (Private
Collection) and Seated Old Man, 1631 (Teylers Museum, Haarlem). There is also a bustlength version in profile, Old Man Seated, 1630 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).
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8. Rembrandt made four etchings of this subject: Old Man with a Flowing Beard, B.309, 1630;
Bust of an Old Man with a Flowing Beard, B.325, 1630; Old Man with Beard Facing
Downwards, Three Quarters, to the Right, B.260, 1631 (see fig. 2); Bust of an Old Man with a
Flowing Beard, B.291, ca. 1630.
9. In the first state of one of these etchings (see fig. 2), Rembrandt made corrections in pen andbrown ink along the folds of the figure’s arm and robe that are reminiscent of accents that hewould develop more fully in the painted study. This etching was illustrated in reverse in Josua
Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2: 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 2: no. A74, in order to draw attention to its
close relationship with Bust of a Bearded Old Man. I.Q. van Regteren Altena made theattribution of the corrections in pen and ink to Rembrandt in the Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum
9 (1961): 3–10. For an overview of Rembrandt’s head studies from around 1630, seeThomas E. Rassieur, “Head Studies and Fantasy Portraits,” in Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter,
Draftsman, Etcher, ed. Clifford Ackley (Exh. cat. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, Art
Institute of Chicago) (Boston, 2004), 92–100.
10. These observations were made by Kristin deGhetaldi after physical examination and technicalimaging of the painting. See Technical Summary.
11. The painting’s lifelike manner demonstrates Rembrandt’s powerful ability to coalesce theartistic traditions of working naar het leven and uit den gheest. For a discussion of some ofthese ideas in an artist’s working practices in this period, see William W. Robinson and Peter
Schatborn, “Drawing into Painting: An Overview,” in Drawings for Paintings in the Age of
Rembrandt, eds. Ger Luijten, Peter Schatborn, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Paris, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt)(Milan, 2016), 5–16.
12. It is not clear when the paper was mounted to panel, and whether this was done in
Rembrandt’s workshop, by the artist himself, or at a later stage. Recent X-ray images reveal
woodworm tunnels on both the front and back of the panel, suggesting that the paper was
adhered to the panel at a later point (after previous use) and then subsequently cradled (seeTechnical Summary). The practice of mounting paper onto a wooden or canvas support
occurred in a number of Rembrandt’s works from this period: Joseph Telling His Dreams,
1633–34, oil on paper laid on cardboard (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); Ecce Homo, 1634, oil
on paper, stuck on canvas (National Gallery, London); The Lamentation over the Dead Christ,ca. 1635, oil on paper and canvas, mounted on panel (National Gallery, London).
13. Gerson related Bust of a Bearded Old Man to Rembrandt’s “powerful” drawings of the1630s, such as Christ and His Disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, 1634 (Teylers
Museum, Haarlem). He called the signature on Bust of a Bearded Old Man “spurious,”though he believed the date to be in seventeenth-century script. Scholars have largely
dismissed Gerson’s interpretation; the Rembrandt Research Project described the painting© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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as a “self-contained work.” The RRP also considered the signature and date to be authentic.
The recent cleaning of Bust of a Bearded Old Man confirmed that the signature and date areintact. See Horst Gerson, Rembrandt: Paintings (Amsterdam, 1968), no. 183; Josua Bruyn etal., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2: 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt
Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 2: 353.
14. There is no indication that the black framing lines were added later, and the lack of detailvisible beneath them, as seen in the infrared image, suggests that Rembrandt may haveoriginally painted them himself. Similar black framing lines appear in The Lamentation at theFoot of the Cross, ca. 1634–35 (British Museum, London), a drawing that was executed inpen and brown ink and brown wash, with red and perhaps black chalk, and reworked in oils ingrisaille. This drawing is closely related to The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, ca. 1635
(National Gallery, London). For further discussion of the British Museum drawing and its
relation to the National Gallery grisaille painting, see David Bomford et al., Art in the Making:Rembrandt (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery) (London, 2006), 100–109; Martin RoyaltonKisch, Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt and His School (London, 2010), cat. no. 9. The
application of the gray paint in the background of Bust of a Bearded Old Man has also been
done with careful intentionality; certain areas around the contours of the figure indicate that
Rembrandt went back over the composition after he had already completed the figure.
15. Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 353. This idea was more orless dismissed in the entry itself, but has remained a possibility noted in the scholarship. See,for example, Leonard Slatkes, Rembrandt: Catalogo complete dei dipini (Florence, 1992), no.
213.
16. For an overview of grisaille in Rembrandt’s oeuvre, see Ronni Baer, “Rembrandt’s Oil
Sketches,” in Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher, ed. Clifford Ackley (Exh. cat.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago) (Boston, 2004), 32–33.
17. The Ecce Homo grisaille was used for an etching in 1635/36 (B.77). When the print is
examined in raking light, it is evident that many of the outlines of the composition have been
indented with a stylus in the process of transferring the design to the etching plate. This is the
only known evidence of this process occurring in Rembrandt’s work. See David Bomford etal., Art in the Making: Rembrandt (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery) (London, 2006), 75–81.
18. Joseph Telling His Dreams, 1633 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) may have served as apreparatory sketch for a print, but there is no physical evidence that such a practice wascarried out. A smaller etching of the subject, likely based on the grisaille sketch, appeared in
1638 (Joseph Telling His Dreams, etching, B.37). The figure of Jacob in Joseph Telling His
Dreams is based on one of the red-chalk figure studies that Rembrandt made in Leiden in
1631 (Private Collection). See Clifford Ackley, Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman,
Etcher (Exh. cat. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago) (Boston,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Paris,
Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt) (Milan, 2016), 158–59.
19. Bust of a Bearded Old Man, Joseph Telling His Dreams, and Ecce Homo form part of a groupof grisaille paintings Rembrandt produced between 1633 and 1635, along with St. John the
Baptist Preaching, 1634 (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin); The Lamentation over the
Dead Christ, ca. 1635 (National Gallery, London); The Entombment, ca. 1630s (Hunterian Art
Gallery, University of Glasgow); and Concord of the State, 1635–40 (Museum Boijmans van
Beuningen, Rotterdam). Various arguments have been put forth as to the context of andintention for these grisaille oil sketches—particularly whether they were intended as
preparatory designs for prints, like the Ecce Homo—but, as noted above, there is no evidence
that Rembrandt ever used this practice again. A number of other Dutch and Flemish artists,such as Otto van Veen, Peter Paul Rubens, Hendrick Goltzius, Abraham Bloemaert, Pieter
Lastman, and Jan Lievens, worked in grisaille at various points of their careers. Among those
known especially for working in grisaille was Adriaen van de Venne. For discussion andfurther references on this subject, see, for instance, Ronni Baer, “Rembrandt’s Oil
Sketches,” in Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher, ed. Clifford Ackley (Exh. cat.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago) (Boston, 2004), 29–44.
20. Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2: 1631–1634, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 353.
21. Ernst van de Wetering upholds this theory in Corpus VI, arguing that the work’s originalplacement in an album amicorum is a likely explanation for the large signature and date.
Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt’s
Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, with collaboration of Carin van Nes, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2014), 6: no. 103, 529.
22. See Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen, The Rembrandt Documents (New York,1979), 111, no. 1634/6.
23. The inscription reads: “Een vroom gemoet / Acht eer voor goet” (An upright soul prizes honor
above wealth).
24. Albert Blankert, Rembrandt: A Genius and His Impact (Exh. cat. Melbourne, National Galleryof Victoria; Canberra, National Gallery of Austraila) (Zwolle, 1997–98), 115.
25. See Provenance.
26. Clifford Ackley, ed., Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher (Exh. cat. Boston,Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago) (Boston, 2004).

Provenance© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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Possibly Mrs. Van Sonsbeeck, before 1751.
Szarvady, Paris (d. 1882), (his sale, Me. Charles Pillet, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 21 February
1874, no. 39 [for 2500 francs]).
V. Borie, 1881.
Private collection, Paris (anonymous sale, 1900 [to F. Kleinberger]).
[F. Kleinberger, Paris (to Baron Leon Janssen).]Baron Leon Janssen (1849–1923), Brussels, by 1906 (his sale, Frederik Muller & Cie.,
Amsterdam, 26 April 1927, no. 94 [to M. Knoedler & Co., New York, for 35,200 florins]).
[M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1927 (to Andrew W. Mellon for 18,000 dollars).]
Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937), Washington, D.C., June 1928; by descent to Paul Mellon [toArthur Amory Houghton Jr.].
Arthur Amory Houghton Jr. (1906–1990), New York and Queenstown, MD., by 1955 [toRichard L. Feigen].
[Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York, 1984 (to Saul P. Steinberg).]
Saul P. Steinberg (1939–2012), Brooklyn, N.Y., 1984 (his sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 30
January 1997, no. 39).
Private collection, Tokyo and London.
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2018.

Exhibition History
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, “Rembrandt-hulde te Leiden: catalogus dertentoonstelling van schilderijen en teekeningen van Rembrandt en van schilderijen vanandere Leidsche Meesters der Zeventiende Eeuw.” 15 July 1906–15 September 1906, no. 51[lent by Janssen].
Brussels, “International Exhibition of Miniatures,” 1912, no. 1046 [lent by Janssen].
The Hague, Koninklijke Kunstzaal Kleykamp, “Tentoonstelling van schilderijen door oudhollandsche en vlaamsche meesters,” 1927, no. 32 [lent by Janssen].
New York, National Academy of Design, “Dutch and Flemish Paintings from New YorkPrivate Collections,” 1988–89, no. 38 [lent by Steinberg].
Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, “Rembrandt: A Genius and His Impact,” 1 October
1997–7 December 1997; Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, 17 December 1997–15
February 1998, no. 9.
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Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, “Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher,” 26
October 2003–18 January 2004; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 14 February–9 May 2004,
no. 31.
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May
2019 [lent by the present owner].

References
Von Bode, Wilhelm, and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. Rembrandt: Beschreibendes
Verzeichniss seiner Gemälde mit den heliographischen Nachbildungen: Geschichte seines
Lebens und seiner Kunst. 8 vols. Paris, 1897–1906, 8: 37, 380, no. 565, illustrated.
Bredius, Abraham. “Eenige taxaties van schilderijen in de XVIIe en in het begin der XVIIIeeeuw.” Oud Holland 24 (1906): 238, possible mention.
Schmidt-Degener, Frederik. “Le troisième centenaire de Rembrandt en Hollande.” Gazettedes Beaux-Arts 36 (1906): 276.
Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Rembrandt-hulde te Leiden: Catalogus der tentoonstelling
van schilderijen en teekeningen van Rembrandt en van schilderijen van andere Leidsche
Meesters der Zeventiende Eeuw. Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Leiden,
1906, 17, no. 51.
Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Fêtes de Rembrandt à Leyde: Catalogue de l’exposition detableaux et de dessins de Rembrandt et d’autres maîtres de Leyde, du dix-septième siècle,15 juillet–15 septembre 1906. Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Leiden, 1906,
17, no. 51.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 6: 206, no. 369. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Rosenberg,

Adolf.

Rembrandt:

Des

Meisters

Gemälde.

Klassiker

der

Kunst

in

Gesamtausgaben. Edited by Wilhelm R. Valentiner, 114, no. B. 565. 3rd edition. Stuttgart andBerlin, 1908.
Lambotte, Paul. “Numéro special consacré à la miniature publié à l’occasion de l’Exposition
organisée à Bruxelles sous le haut Patronage de LL. MM. le Roi et la Reine.” L’Art Flamand& Hollandais 5 (15 May 1912): 156. Reprinted: Lambotte, Paul. “Tentoonstelling van
Miniaturen.” Onze Kunst 21 (1912): 185–214.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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des minaturistes de toutes les Ecoles, du XVIe au XIXe siècle. Brussels, 1913, 94, pl. LVII,
no. 1046.
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London, 1969, 563, no. 182.
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schilderijen van Rembrandt, en een beknopt overzicht van zijn voornaamste werk als etser entekenaar. Rotterdam, 1969, 96, no. 114.
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Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. The Hague, 1986, 351-354, no. A 74 (as byRembrandt).
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Technical Summary
The paper support has been adhered to a cradled wooden panel of considerable age (presumablyoak).[1] The small size of the oil sketch is exceptional, as is its finished appearance, acharacteristic that sets this work apart from other grisailles dating to this period.[2] The sketch
reveals an exceptional degree of confidence in the handling of paint, particularly in the strokes
used to depict the hair, beard, and clothing.
Examination with X-radiography, infrared photography, and infrared reflectography did not reveal
any distinctive changes to the composition.[3] Before the preliminary painted sketch was executed,
the paper support was given a warm tone with a fluid, dark brown paint. The figure was thenquickly and confidently painted with browns, yellows, white, and black; the mouth was formed byapplying a tiny, singular daub of red lake. A similarly muted palette was used to further refine anddevelop areas of the drapery, the face, and the hair. Paint was applied both wet-over-dry and wetinto-wet.
The background has an overall green-gray tone, which was also used to refine the contours of the
figure. Final details were applied to the hair and beard. To establish the final format of thecomposition, the artist applied black outlines along the outer edges of the painting.[4]The painting is signed and dated in dark paint along the upper edge.
The work was conserved in 2018 and is in excellent and stable condition.
Further technical information about this artwork is available in The Rembrandt Database.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. X-radiography revealed the presence of woodworm tunnels that were filled from the front of
the panel, indicating that the front and back of the panel had been filled before the paper
support was adhered to the surface. It is not clear when this process occurred, and further
research is needed to determine the dating of the panel. In addition, cradling was notfrequently performed on wooden supports until the late eighteenth century. See Paul Ackroyd,“The Structural Conservation of Paintings on Wooden Panel Supports,” in The Conservation
Easel Paintings, ed. Joyce Hill Stoner and Rebecca Anne Rushfield (Oxford: Routledge,2012), 459.
2. Three comparable works on paper include the Lamentation at the Foot of the Cross, c.
1634–35 (British Museum, London), Ecce Homo, 1634 (National Gallery, London), andJoseph Telling His Dreams, 1633 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). I am grateful to curator Lara
Yeager-Crasselt at The Leiden Collection and independent researcher Maaike Dirkx forproviding me with these examples.
3. All imaging was carried out at Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware. X-radiography
was collected using a Pantak-Seifert Eresco 65 MF2 equipped with a GE CR50P Phosphor
scanner (scans are collected with GE Rhythm RT software and processed with GE Rhythm
Review software). Infrared reflectography was performed using an FLIR-Alpha NIR camera
equipped with an InGaAs detector and various filters (incandescent lighting source) that allow
for sensitivity within the 900 to 1700 nanometer range. Infrared photography was performed
using a CCD detector (modified Nikon camera) that is sensitive within the 750 to 1050
nanometer range. I would like to thank paintings conservator Matthew Cushman,photographer Jim Schenck, and WUDPAC painting conservation students Tracy Liu, Julianna
Ly, and Jennifer Myers for their assistance throughout the imaging process.
4. The dark black outline along the outer edges of the composition is a curious feature of thepainting. This line is not present along most of the proper right edge but is relatively
consistent in thickness along the top and proper left edges. Along the bottom edge the blackline is the most prominent, measuring approximately .48 cm (3/16 inches) thick. The black
paint does not extend over the outer edges of the panel.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection