Man with a Sword
Rembrandt van Rijn and Workshop(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)1644
oil on canvas
102.23 x 88.9 cm
Signed and dated at lower right:“Rembrandt·f. 1644”
RR-114© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Van Sloten, Leonore and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. “Man with a Sword” (2018). In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue,

2nd

ed.

EditedbyArthurK.

Wheelock

Jr.

New

York,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/man-with-a-sword/ (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

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In this powerful and enigmatic painting, a man holding an ornamented
Ottoman sword sits in the foreground of a dimly lit interior.

[1]Comparative Figures

Portrayed half-

length and in three-quarter view, he engages us with steady blue eyes and amuted expression. His restrained smile and focused gaze reflect little about
his state of mind, yet somehow render him familiar and approachable. He
wears old-fashioned clothing consisting of a purple jerkin over a white blousewith ruffled cuffs gathered tightly at the wrists. Beneath a plush purple beret,the man’s long brown curls extend onto a black cape that envelops the sideof the wooden chair. A gold chain and medallion hang prominently across hischest, with areas of impasto — as well as those on the silver and gold
ornament on the sword — depicting the reflected light that descends from thepainting’s upper-left corner.

Fig 1. Infrared reflectography of
Man with a Sword, 2013, Art
Analysis & Research, London

Man with a Sword, which is signed and dated 1644, has a complex andfascinating history, much of which has only come to light in recent years.
After having been out of the public eye for nearly two decades, the painting
reappeared on the art market in 2013.[2] Prior to its sale, it underwent a
series of technical examinations in order to address questions regarding its
attribution and dating.[3] Although nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
scholars viewed the painting as an exceptional work by Rembrandt, by thesecond half of the twentieth century most scholars no longer accepted its
attribution.[4] Horst Gerson was the first to raise doubt, remarking in 1968 that“to judge from the photograph, the attribution to Rembrandt is not very
convincing.”[5] In 1970, Bob Haak and Pieter van Thiel, then members of theRembrandt Research Project, considered the work to be an eighteenth-Fig 2. XRF scan of iron (FeK),
detail of face, Man with a Sword,
Geert van der Snickt (University of
Antwerp) and Joris Dik (Technical
University of Delft)

century pastiche.[6] Subsequent proposals in the 1980s and 1990s that thepainting should be attributed to Govaert Flinck and Ferdinand Bol nevergained acceptance.[7]Technical research undertaken in 2012/13 demonstrated a number ofreasons why the attribution of this work had proved to be such a conundrum
for Rembrandt scholars. The discovery of a quartz ground, which isconsistent with and specific to Rembrandt and his workshop’s practices
starting with The Night Watch (ca. 1639–42), indicates that the painting must

Fig 3. X-radiograph, detail ofhands, Man with a Sword, Simon
Howell, Shepherd Conservation,
Londonhave originated in Rembrandt’s workshop.[8] The signature and date,moreover, were also found to be integral to the underlying paint layers.[9] Xradiography, infrared reflectography (IRR) (fig 1), and macro XRF scanning,
however, revealed a number of compositional changes—particularly in the
costume and position of the hands—that raise fascinating questions about thepainting’s conception and execution.
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X-radiography and infrared images reveal that the man originally wore
contemporary dress consisting of a white shirt with a high, horizontal
neckline and collar, and unadorned cuffs at the wrists.[10] The beret wasadded in a second stage; a large plume, which was partly articulated with aseries of rapid scratches into the wet paint, was also added. A medallion,
which probably held the feather in place, was positioned near the brim of theberet (fig 2). Both the feather and the medallion were thereafter
overpainted.[11] The sitter’s hands were also substantially reworked. While
the sequence of brushwork on the sitter’s left hand is not discernable in the
X-radiograph, the changes to the right hand are evident (fig 3). It appears

Fig 4. X-radiograph, detail of face,
Man with a Sword, Simon Howell,
Shepherd Conservation, London

originally to have been placed higher and further to the left, with the thumbraised, to accommodate the sitter’s grip on either another object or a part ofhis dress.[12] In the background, a red curtain that hung in the upper rightcorner was also overpainted. Strikingly, X-radiographs indicate that during
the second campaign, only minor adjustments were made to the sitter’sface. It became somewhat rounder, the right nostril and nose were enlarged,
and the bottom lip was slightly extended. The man’s bangs replaced acenter-parted hairline he had in the initial stage of the painting (fig 4).
These technical examinations have raised the fundamental question ofwhether Rembrandt originally conceived the painting as a formal portrait
before it was changed into a generic depiction of man with a sword. Ernst
van de Wetering, who attributed the original concept for the painting and theunderlying portrait to Rembrandt, reached this conclusion, but also proposed

Fig 5. Rembrandt van Rijn andWorkshop, Man with a Hawk,
1643, oil on canvas, 114 x 97.3
cm, Private Collection/Bridgeman
Imagesthat a member of the artist’s workshop overpainted and modified significant
portions of the composition.[13] He suggested that Rembrandt may have left
the so-called original portrait unfinished, or that the patron rejected it, acircumstance known to have occurred with other paintings by Rembrandt.[14]Differences in handling between the modeling of the face and the figure’s
costume and sword reinforce Van de Wetering’s assessment of this work.
He concluded that the head and hair (“largely unaltered”), the shaded partsof the left hand, parts of the black cape (“raw, bravura brushwork”), and thesignature and date were by Rembrandt, while a member of the workshop
was responsible for the second stage of the painting’s execution.[15] Indeed,
the smoothly blended and well-modeled brushwork on the face, with areas ofwarm, pink flesh tones, is entirely characteristic of Rembrandt, while themodeling of the purple jerkin, collar, and chain is rather superficial in

Fig 6. Rembrandt van Rijn andWorkshop, Woman with a Fan,
1643, oil on canvas, 114.5 x 98
cm, Private Collection/Bridgeman
Imagescharacter. Finally, impastos on the medallion and on the ornamental featuresof the sword do not convincingly convey, as Rembrandt would have done,
the three-dimensionality of these pictorial elements.
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Questions of workshop participation related to Man with a Sword are
analogous to those related to a few other Rembrandt paintings from thisperiod. For example, Man with a Hawk (fig 5), signed and dated 1643, andits pendant, Woman with a Fan (fig 6), were recently reattributed toRembrandt and workshop. Much as with Man with a Sword, changes madeto Man with a Hawk during a second campaign were concentrated in the
man’s costume and the position of his arm.[16] As with the Leiden Collection
painting, the figure’s face, executed with smooth, thin brushwork and “fluent
transitions and a slight sfumato” in a manner consistent with Rembrandt’s
style, was left largely intact and not overpainted.[17] The execution of Woman
with a Fan reflects some of these same stylistic characteristics. As Van deWetering has suggested, the woman’s face and necklace “could have been
painted by Rembrandt,” whereas her costume was likely executed by a

Fig 7. Rembrandt van Rijn, SelfPortrait at Age 34, 1640, oil oncanvas, 102 x 80 cm, National
Gallery, London, inv. no. NG672,© National Gallery, London / Art
Resource, NY

member of the workshop. The artist responsible for the woman’s costume
may have been the same one responsible for the revisions in Man with a
Hawk.[18]
Could the artist who was involved in the production of these pendants also
be the same artist responsible for the alterations in Man with a Sword? The
similar patterns of revisions in Man with a Hawk and Man with a Sword are
striking.[19] However, an important difference in the genesis of these works
merits mention: neither of the portrait pendants was transformed from aformal portrait featuring contemporary dress into a tronie-like image withfanciful costume, as was done with Man with a Sword. Rather, the Man witha Hawk and the Woman with a Fan were intended from the beginning as
portraits historiés (sitters portrayed in the guise of historicizing costume).
The imaginative alteration of Man with a Sword’s attire links this work to theFig 8. Rembrandt van Rijn, SelfPortrait in a Flat Cap, 1642, 70.4 x
58.8 cm, inv. no. RCIN 404120,
Royal Collection Trust / © Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018

pictorial tradition of historicizing tronies that Rembrandt executed over thecourse of his career. Combinations of a beret or bonnet, jerkin, cape, andgold chain, which are derived from sixteenth-century fashions, alreadyappeared in Rembrandt’s work in the 1620s.[20] He used these motifs again
in his self-portraits in the early 1640s, such as the Self-Portrait at the
National Gallery in London from 1640 (fig 7), and the Self-Portrait at Windsor
Castle from 1642 (fig 8). Although Man with a Sword does not portray
Rembrandt himself—despite the assertions of many nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-century scholars—its strong similarities with the exotic character of
his tronies provide compelling visual evidence for his close involvement instages of its production.[21]Understanding the period of Rembrandt’s career in which Man with a Sword© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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was executed presents numerous challenges, largely because we know
relatively little about how his workshop functioned during the mid-1640s.
After he completed The Night Watch in 1642, Rembrandt’s artistic
production slowed; he received fewer commissions for portraits, and almost
turned away from self-portraiture until the 1650s.[22] Did the workshop at thismoment function similarly to the model of the late 1630s, when it has been
understood that “Rembrandt worked together with pupils and assistants on
the same compositions” and developed “an integrated approach toworkshop production”?[23] Were collaborations of this nature, which may havetaken various forms, or the overpainting of Rembrandt’s works by his pupils
commonplace?[24]Technical examinations and careful stylistic assessments of Man with a
Sword indicate that this painting’s distinctive character was the result of acomplex creative process involving Rembrandt and his workshop. While
Rembrandt initiated, signed, and dated the work, it appears that Rembrandt
engaged a student or assistant to amend his initial concept.[25] The hand of
the other artist involved in that process has not been identified, but thepainting’s quality and visual power indicate that Rembrandt must haveguided its transformation while it was in his studio.[26] Although the reasonsfor this reworking are unknown, Man with a Sword provides insights into thecharacter of Rembrandt’s workshop in the mid-1640s. Its transformation andreappearance after years of obscurity also offer a fascinating demonstrationof how insights into a work of art change over time, depending on theavailability of the work itself, as well as on the evolution of researchtechniques.

- Leonore van Sloten and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2017

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Endnotes

1. The identification of the object held by the man has been the subject of debate. Early scholars
believed it represented a Torah or scroll, but it has since been correctly identified as a sword
or dagger, resembling one of an Ottoman sort. Its distinctive rounded, knob-like handle anddeep red sheath with elaborate ornamentation are unlike swords depicted in other works by
Rembrandt, such as his etching Self-Portrait with a Sword from 1634. He may have owned asimilar object, as the 1656 inventory of his insolvent estate lists “20 stucks helbaerden,slachswaerden [. . .]” [Fol. 38, no. 339] (25–26 July 1656). Thanks to Alexa McCarthy forassisting in researching the identification of the object. Jaap Polak (Polak Works of Art,
Amsterdam) confirmed that it must be of Ottoman origin (oral statement to Leonore van
Sloten, September 2018).
2. After its sale in 1996, the painting disappeared into a private collection and received little orno scholarly attention. Ernst van de Wetering published Man with a Sword in A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2014), but he did not give it anindividual catalogue number. It serves as a comparative illustration under nos. 191a/191b,
Rembrandt and workshop, Man with a Hawk (fig 5), and Rembrandt and (mainly) workshop,
Woman with a Fan (fig 6), both 1643.
3. Jilleen Nadolny and Nicholas Eastaugh at Art Analysis & Research in London performed thetechnical investigations in 2012 on behalf of Christie’s. (The technical report is kept on file at
The Leiden Collection.) Ernst van de Wetering and Martin Bijl also studied the painting
thoroughly, and macro XRF scanning was performed at the Amsterdam Museum in 2012 byGeert van der Snickt from the University of Antwerp and Joris Dik from the Technical
University of Delft.
4. The work was first recorded as by Rembrandt in the collection of a Henry Isaacs in 1765, andwas reproduced in a mezzotint by the German artist Johann Gottfried Haid that same year
(see Versions). In the mid-nineteenth century, it entered the celebrated British collection ofRobert Stayner Holford (1808–92), where Gustav Waagen described its “extraordinary powerand depth of tone.” Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an
Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., etc.,
trans. Elizabeth Eastlake, 3 vols. (London, 1854–57), 2: 200. In 1898, the painting was part of
the first monographic exhibition on Rembrandt, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where
it was presented as a genuine work by the master. See References and Exhibition History foran overview of opinions and descriptions of the painting.
5. Horst Gerson, Rembrandt: Paintings (Amsterdam, 1968), no. 244. Gerson admitted to having
never seen the painting in person.
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6. Bob Haak and Pieter van Thiel saw the painting while it was on loan to the Bowdoin College
Museum of Art in 1970. Their views were never published, and there is no extant record of
the arguments that underlay their opinion.
7. When the painting came up for auction in 1989, and again in 1996, it was attributed toGovaert Flinck, largely based on its comparison with Portrait of a Man with a Steel Gorget,
1644 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), whose own attribution remains disputed. In
the Rembrandt / Not Rembrandt exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1996,
Walter Liedtke attributed the Met painting to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, whereas Hubert
von Sonnenburg gave it to Govaert Flinck. In Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2014), Van de Wetering reattributed
Portrait of a Man with a Steel Gorget to Rembrandt. This attribution history bears
consideration in regard to the Leiden Collection painting, which at auction in 2013 wasclaimed to be by the same hand (Christie’s, London, catalogue, 3 December 2013, no. 16).
Alternatively, Werner Sumowski argued for an attribution to Ferdinand Bol in 1994, citing
similarities with Bol’s self-portraits in Springfield and Gouda from the second half of the1640s. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 6: 3695,
3697, no. 2207.
8. The quartz ground in the Leiden Collection painting consists of a mixture of river clay, sand,and oil. Karin Groen’s exhaustive research on this subject has shown that the use of quartz
ground was specific and unique to Rembrandt’s workshop in the period after 1640. Evidenceof its use first appears in The Night Watch. Groen’s study of a sample of sixty canvases
prepared by Rembrandt’s contemporaries in the period 1640 to 1669 found no otherapplication of quartz ground. This research strongly supports the suggestion that works
containing a quartz ground were produced in the Master’s workshop. See Karin Groen,“Grounds in Rembrandt’s Workshop and in Paintings by His Contemporaries,” in Ernst van
de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4: Self-Portraits, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2005), 4: 318–34, 660–77; Karin Groen,“Earth Matters: The Origin of the Material Used for the Preparation of The Night Watch andMany Other Canvases in Rembrandt’s Workshop after 1640,” Art Matters: Netherlands
Technical Studies in Art 3 (2005): 138–54.
9. No cross section was taken in this area of the painting, but there are no indications that thispart of the painting has been reworked. The inscription is in opaque black paint and isthoroughly traversed by the craquelure of the underlying and surrounding paint layer.
10. Also visible in the X-ray is a different contour of the cape and a large triangular shape on the
man’s chest, which should be understood as a part of the shirt appearing where the man’svest was open. Pigment analysis revealed that the robe was originally rendered in blue asazurite, rather than its present purple color.
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11. The plume is visible in the IR image, as well as in the XRF scans. The copper map (CuK)shows the extent of the rapid brushwork and scratching into the paint. In Nicholas Eastaugh’s
research, a sample taken from the area of the feather showed a thin layer of red lake. This
led to the conclusion that the plume had been red. The copper map from the macro XRF scan
implies a blue pigment as well, which may indicate that the plume might have looked purple;
the lines scratched into the wet paint with the back of the brush show a self-assured hand.
Further research into other painted feathers would be needed to come to a better
understanding of this observation. The medallion, which has not been noted before, is best
seen in the iron map (FeK). The quill of the feather seems to have been stuck into themedallion, as is the case, for example, in the painting of the Woman with a Fan (fig 6).
12. Long, vertical brushworks visible in the X-ray indicate that at one point the man had been
holding another object, a part of his dress, or—as Martin Bijl suggested in conversation—a beltthat was running over the sitter’s body. The mercury map of the macro XRF scan shows apuzzling form: it looks like a rope that ends in a loop where the initial thumb was located.
13. Ernst van de Wetering shared these ideas with Christie’s in 2013, and subsequently in a
letter dated 27 October 2014, kept on file at The Leiden Collection. Further discussion is in
Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt’s
Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project(Dordrecht, 2014), 6: 59, 580. Van de Wetering refers to this painting as belonging to acategory of “superimposed” paintings, which have been altered (or overpainted) after acomposition conceived by the Master himself.
14. Ernst van de Wetering suggests that the patron either may have died before the painting wasdone, was unable to pay, or simply changed his mind. In 1642, for instance, Andries deGraeff had refused to pay for his portrait, and in 1654 the Portuguese merchant Diegod’Andrade complained about a portrait he commissioned for a befriended lady. See further
discussion in note 25.
15. See Christie’s, London, catalogue, 3 December 2013, no. 16, and the letter kept on file at
The Leiden Collection.
16. During this stage, the banister and game bag were also added.
17. Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt’s
Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project(Dordrecht, 2014), 6: no. 191a, 579–81. These changes were noted as a result of X-ray andinfrared examinations, and analysis of paint samples done in the Hamilton Kerr Institute.
18. Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt’s
Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project(Dordrecht, 2014), 6: no. 191b, 580–81.
19. It is worth noting that the overall palette of Man with a Sword is similar to Woman with a Fan,
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as is the handling of certain details, such as the ruffs.
20. These costume elements were typically associated with ideas of learning, honor, andambition. For Rembrandt’s use of these motifs, see, for instance, Self-Portrait, Age 23, 1629
(Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, Boston) and Old Man with Black Cap and Chain, 1631
(Art Institute of Chicago). See H. Perry Chapman, Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits (Princeton,
1990), 45–54; Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. “Rembrandt Inventing Himself,” in Rembrandt Creates
Rembrandt: Art and Ambition in Leiden, 1629–1631, ed. Alan Chong (Exh. cat. Boston,Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) (Zwolle, 2000), 13–23; Marieke de Winkel, “Costume in
Rembrandt’s Self Portraits,” in Rembrandt by Himself (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery;
The Hague, Mauritshuis) (London, 1999), 60–74.
21. Scholars such as Émile Michel, Wilhelm von Bode, Robert Benson, and Seymour de Ricci
described this work as a self-portrait, and it was exhibited as such in the major Rembrandt
exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1898. See References and Exhibition
History.
22. Gary Schwartz cites only a handful of generally accepted history paintings from the first halfof the 1640s, including the Dismissal of Hagar, the Visitation, the Holy Family, and Christ
Taken in Adultery, also dated to 1644. The number of portraits and self-portraits that
Rembrandt produced, done with such vigor in the preceding decades, declined from themid-1640s until around 1650. Ernst van de Wetering cites Portrait of a Man with a Steel
Gorget, signed and dated to 1644 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), as the only fully
autograph portrait from this period.
23. For an excellent summary of these issues and the types of collaboration that could haveexisted in Rembrandt’s workshop, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Issues of Attribution in theRembrandt Workshop,” in Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century, NGA Online Editions(Washington, 2014). For differing assessments, see Ernst van de Wetering, “More Than One
Hand in Paintings by Rembrandt,” in A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 5, Small-Scale
History Paintings, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2011), 311–21; Josua Bruyn,“Rembrandt’s Workshop: Its Function and Production,” in Rembrandt: The Master and His
Workshop, ed. Christopher Brown, Jan Kelch, and P.J.J. van Thiel (Exh. cat. Berlin, Altes
Museum; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; London, National Gallery) (New Haven, 1991), 68–89.
24. Paintings such as the Sybille (Wright Gallery, Los Angeles) and Eli and Samuel (Getty
Museum, Los Angeles), both from the 1630s, were modified in subject or form. The Leiden
Collection’s own Self-Portrait from 1634, which was overpainted by another hand (and only
restored to its original state in 2000), is further evidence of this practice. See Ernst van deWetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4: Self-Portraits Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2005), 59; for the Sybille, see Josua Bruyn et al., A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642 (The Hague, Boston, and London, 1989),
C 15; for Eli and Samuel, see Ernst van de Wetering and Bernard Schnackenburg, eds., The© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Mystery of Young Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Kassel, Staatliche Museen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie
Alte

Meister,

Schloss

Wilhelmshöhe;

Amsterdam,

MuseumHet

Rembrandthuis)(Wolfratshausen, 2001), no. 66, 324–31. For discussion about another painting from
Rembrandt’s workshop that underwent transformation, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.,
“Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch 17th Century, Govaert Flinck / Man in Oriental Costume / c.
1635,”

Dutch

Paintings

oftheSeventeenthCentury,

NGA

OnlineEditions,

https://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/572 (accessed October 5, 2018).
25. In this particular case, the drastic change may have resulted from the loss of a formal
commission—for whatever reason—and the need to turn the painting into a sellable object for
the free market. The complaint of Diego d’Andrade bears mentioning here. This Portuguese
merchant requested a portrait of a lady. He paid Rembrandt an initial fee, but on 23 February
1654, he complained about the likeness of the portrait. He demanded that Rembrandt change
it. Rembrandt responded that he would not do so unless the governors of the St. Lucas Guildagreed about the lack of likeness. Otherwise he would try to sell the painting himself. See
document/remdoc/e1661. We do not know which portrait was subject of this dispute, nor how
it ended—whether Rembrandt did something to change the work into a sellable tronie. But the
anecdote shows how a conflict with a sitter could potentially result in a failed commission. The
painter would then need to find a way to earn money for the work already done and to recoup
the cost of materials used.
26. Although it is not possible to identify the other artist’s hand in this work, Ernst van deWetering has suggested that Carel Fabritius was involved in the execution of a number of
portraits in Rembrandt’s workshop in the early 1640s. Shortly after his marriage in
September 1641, Fabritius entered Rembrandt’s workshop and remained there until 1643.
Before June 1643 Fabritius moved to Middenbeemster. Yet, given the short distance toAmsterdam, it is not unthinkable that he remained in contact with Rembrandt. See Frederik J.
Duparc, Carel Fabritius 1622–1654 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Schwerin, National
Museum) (Zwolle, 2005), 18–19. With the exception of Fabritius’s Portrait of Abraham dePotter in 1649, no known portraits are securely attributed to the artist; for the group of
portraits Van de Wetering attributes to Fabritius, see Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus
of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey,
Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2014), 6: 580–81, figs. 6–9.
Interestingly enough, the features of the man holding a sword are very close to those of Carel
Fabritius, when compared with his self-portraits in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,Rotterdam (inv. no. 1205 OK), and the National Gallery, London (inv. no. NG4042). Other
artists who studied and worked in Rembrandt’s workshop in 1643/44 were Samuel van
Hoogstraten, Abraham Furnerius, Reynier van Gherwen, and Bernhard Keil.

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ProvenanceHenry Isaacs, London, 1765.
Everard George van Tindinghorste, Amsterdam (his sale, Amsterdam, Van Amstel, de Winter& Yver, 26 March 1777, no. 56, as by “Rembrand van Rhyn”).[1]Pieter Locquet, Amsterdam (his sale, Van der Schley, Amsterdam, 22–24 September 1783,
no. 322, as by “Rembrand van Ryn” [to Fouquet for 210 florins]).
Sir James Carnegie, 5th Bt., 8th Earl of Southesk (1799–1849); by descent to his son, James,
9th Earl of Southesk (1827–1905), Kinnaird Castle, Brechin, Angus [to Holford].
Robert Stayner Holford (1808–92), Dorchester House, Park Lane, and Westonbirt,
Gloucestershire, by 1854; by descent to his son, Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860–1926)(Holford sale, Christie’s, London, 17 May 1928, no. 36, as by Rembrandt [to M. Knoedler &Co., London, for 48,000 gns]).
[M. Knoedler & Co., London, 1928–33; to Oakes]
Sir Harry Oakes (1873–1943) and Lady Eunice MacIntyre Oakes (1898–1981), Toronto andNassau, Bahamas, 1935; by descent (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 12 January 1989, no. 42,
as by Govaert Flinck).
(Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 11 January 1996, no. 145, as by Govaert Flinck.)
Private Collection (anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 3 December 2013, no. 16, as byRembrandt and Studio.)
Private Collection, England (private sale, Christie’s, London, 2017).
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Provenance Notes

1. The dimensions given in this sale catalogue are closer to the other known version, rather thanthose of RR-114. In addition, the work is described as on panel, rather than canvas. The
Leiden Collection thanks Leonore van Sloten for bringing this to our attention.

Exhibition History
London, Royal Academy, “Winter Exhibition,” 1893, no. 108 [lent by Holford].
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, “De Rembrandt Tentoonstelling te Amsterdam,” 8
September–31 October 1898, no. 61 [lent by Holford].
London, Royal Academy, “Exhibition of Works by Rembrandt (Winter Exhibition),” 1899, no.
73 [lent by Holford].
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London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, “Exhibition of the Holford Collection,” 1921–22, no. 31[lent by Holford].
Paris, Louvre, Exposition Hollandaise, April–May 1921, no. 43 [lent by Holford].
London, Royal Academy, “Exhibition of Dutch Art,” 1929, no. 118. [lent by Knoedler]
Providence, Rhode Island, on loan with the permanent collection, Rhode Island School of
Design, 6–27 March 1932 [lent by Knoedler].
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., “Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Rembrandt: Held for the
Benefit of the Adopt-a-Family Committee of the Emergency Unemployment Relief Fund,”April 1933, no. 5.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, “Rembrandt Tentoonstelling: Ter herdenking van de plechtige
opening van het Rijksmuseum op 13 Juli 1885,” 13 July–13 October 1935, no. 10 [lent by Sir
Harry Oakes].
Brunswick, Me., Bowdoin College Museum of Fine Arts, on loan with the permanentcollection, 1938–1973 [lent by Sir Harry Oakes].
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Frans Hals [and] Rembrandt,” 18
November–31 December 1947, no. 17 [lent by Lady Oakes].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Rembrandt and His Pupils,” 16 November–30
December 1956, no. 16 [lent by Lady Oakes].
Mexico City, Instituto Anglo-Mexicano de Cultura, “Pintura Britanica en Mexico: Siglos XVI al
XIX,” November–December 1963.
Hong Kong, Christie’s exhibition at the Hong Kong Convention Centre, “The Loaded Brush:
A Curated Exhibition of Masterpieces from Private Collections,” 24–27 November 2017.
Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, “A Special Visit,” 11 May–2 September 2018 [lentby the present owner].
Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, on loan with the permanent collection, September
2018–January 2019 [lent by the present owner].
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
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish andFrench Painters. London, 1836, 7: 152, 280, no. 458 (as by Rembrandt).
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Man with a Sword
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Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated MSS., etc. Translated by Elizabeth
Eastlake. 3 vols. London, 1854, 2: 200 (as by Rembrandt).
Vosmaer, Carel. Rembrandt, sa vie et ses oeuvres. 2nd ed. Paris, 1877, 367, 564 (as byRembrandt).
Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Rembrandt-Galerie. 1884, 97, no. 491 (as by Rembrandt).
Dutuit, Eugène. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt. Paris, 1885, 45, 58, 63, no. 343 (as byRembrandt).
Royal Academy of Arts. Winter Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased
Masters of the British School; Including a Collection of Water Colour Drawings, &c., byWilliam Blake, Edward Calvert, Sameul Palmer, and Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford. Exh.
cat. London, Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1893, 25, no. 108 (as by Rembrandt).
Michel, Émile. Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, and His Time. Translated by F. Simmonds.
New York, 1895, 2: 236 (as by Rembrandt). Originally published as Rembrandt, sa vie, son
oeuvre et son temps. Paris, 1893.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. De Rembrandt Tentoonstelling te Amsterdam. Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam, 1898, no. 61 (as by Rembrandt).
Royal Academy of Arts. Winter Exhibition of Works by Rembrandt. Exh. cat. London, Royal
Academy of Arts. London, 1899, 7, 25, no. 73 (as by Rembrandt).
Von Bode, Wilhelm, and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. Rembrandt: beschreibendes
Verzeichniss seiner Gemälde mit den heliographischen Nachbildungen: Geschichte seines
Lebens und seiner Kunst. [The Complete Work of Rembrandt, History, Description andHeliographic Reproduction of All the Master’s Pictures, with a Study of His Life.] 8 vols. Paris,
1900, 1: 24; 4, no. 259 (as by Rembrandt).
Bell, Malcom. Rembrandt van Rijn. London, 1901, 147 (as by Rembrandt).
Rosenberg,

Adolf.

Rembrandt:

desMeisters

Gemälde.

Klassiker

der

Kunst

in

Gesamtausgaben, edited by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. 3rd Edition. 2 vols. Stuttgart and Berlin,
1909, 2: 588, no. 274 (as by Rembrandt).
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. 8 vols. London, 1916, 6: 350, no. 746 (as by Rembrandt). Originallypublished as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten
höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Musée du Louvre. Exposition Hollandaise: Tableaux, Aquarelles et Dessins Anciens etModernes. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1921, 5, no. 43 (as by Rembrandt).
Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of Pictures and Other Objects of Art Selected from theCollection of Mr. Robert Holford mainly from Westonbirt in Gloucestershire. Exh. cat. London,
Burlington Fine Arts Club. London, 1921, 25, no. 31 (as by Rembrandt).
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Man with a Sword
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Benson, Robert. The Holford Collection: Dorchester House. London, 1924, 13, 33, no. 91, pl.
80 (as by Rembrandt).
De Ricci, Seymour. “La collection Holford.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (January 1925): 40 (as byRembrandt).
Gibson, William. “The Holford Collection.” Apollo (May 1928): 200–2, illustrated (as byRembrandt).
Chamot, Mary. “The Last of a Great Collection.” Country Life (5 May 1928), 636–37,
illustrated (as by Rembrandt).
Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of Dutch Art, 1450–1900. Exh. cat. London, Royal
Academy of Arts. London, 1929, 63, no. 118 (as by Rembrandt).
Royal Academy of Arts. Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of Dutch Art Held in theGalleries of the Royal Academy, Burlington House, London. Exh. cat. London, Royal
Academy of Arts. London, 1929, 100, no. 118 (as by Rembrandt).
Rowe, L. Earle. “Famous Rembrandts Shown at Museum of Art.” Bulletin of the Rhode Island
School of Design 20, no. 2 (April 1932): 19–21 (as by Rembrandt).
Knoedler & Co. Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Rembrandt Held for the Benefit of the Adopt-aFamily Committee of the Emergency Unemployment Relief Fund at the Knoedler Galleries.
Exh. cat. New York, M. Knoedler & Co. New York, 1933, no. 5 (as by Rembrandt).
Frankfurter, Alfred M. “New York’s First Rembrandt Exhibition.” The Fine Arts 20, no. 1 (May1933): 8, 9, illustrated (as by Rembrandt).
Benesch, Otto. Rembrandt: Werk und Forschung. Vienna, 1935, 33 (as by Rembrandt, apossible self-portrait).
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt. Gemälde. Vienna, 1935, no. 235 (as by Rembrandt).
Rijksmuseum. Rembrandt Tentoonstelling: ter herdenking van de plechtige opening van het
Rijksmuseum op 13 Juli 1885. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam, 1935, 48,
no. 10 (as by Rembrandt).
Scheyer, Ernst. “Die Rembrandt-Austellung in Amsterdam.” Pantheon 16 (1935): 290–94 (asby Rembrandt).
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Frans Hals, Rembrandt. Exh. cat. Los
Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1947, no. 17 (as by Rembrandt).
Rosenberg, Jakob. Rembrandt. 2 vols. Berlin, 1948. Revised edition published as
Rembrandt: Life and Work. London, 1968, 244 (as by Rembrandt).
Valentiner, Whilhelm R. Rembrandt and His Pupils: A Loan Exhibition. Exh. cat. Raleigh,North Carolina Museum of Art. Raleigh, 1956, no. 16 (as by Rembrandt).
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt: Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, no. 184 (as by Rembrandt, probably a selfportrait).
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Man with a Sword
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Gerson, Horst. Rembrandt:

Paintings.

Amsterdam,

1968,

340,

341,

498,

no.

244

doubtful attribution to Rembrandt).
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings. Edited by Horst
Gerson. London, 1969, 187, 567, no. 235 (as of doubtful attribution to Rembrandt).
Arpino, Giovanni, and Paolo Lecaldano. L’opera pittorica complete di Rembrandt. Milan,
1969, 111, no. 257 (as by Rembrandt).
Bolten, Jaap, and Henriette Bolten-Rempt. The Hidden Rembrandt. Oxford, 1978, 190, no.
327 (as by Rembrandt).
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94, 6:3695 and 3791, no. 2207, illustrated (as by Ferdinand Bol).
Van Thiel, Pieter J.J. “De Rembrandt-tentoonstelling van 1898.” Bulletin van het
Rijksmuseum 40 (1992): 47, 82, no. 61.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau and Pfalz, 1994, 6:3695 and 3791, no. 2207 (as by Ferdinand Bol).
Van de Wetering, Ernst, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 6: Rembrandt’s
Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey. With the collaboration of Carin van Nes. Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. Dordrecht, 2014, 59, 580-81, fig. 2 & fig. 3 (as byRembrandt and pupil of Rembrandt).
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of
Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina
Lyubimova, 18, 29. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow,
2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt,
Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the
Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 26. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French andArabic.]Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden
Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 94–5, no. 27. [Exhibition catalogue also published in
French and Arabic.]
Brooke, Janet M. “The Netherlands in the North: Collecting Rembrandt in Canada.” In Leiden
circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges. Edited by Jacquelyne N. Coutré, 115, no. 56. Exh. cat.
Kingston, Agnes Etherington; Edmonton, Art Gallery of Alberta; Hamilton, Art Gallery of
Hamilton. Kingston, 2019.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection(asoMan with a Sword
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Versions
Print

1. Johann Gottfried Haid (German, 1714–76) after Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Man
Seated, Holding a Dagger [also referred to as a scroll], 1765, mezzotint, 506 x 355 mm.
Reference: Chaloner Smith, John. British Mezzotint Portraits; Being a descriptive catalogue ofthese engravings from the introduction of the art to the early part of the present century. 4
vols. London, 1885, 2, 616, no. 7.

Version

1. After Rembrandt [also as after Govaert Flinck], Man with a Sword, oil on panel, 87.5 x 70 cm.
RKD photo mount notes provenance as a South American Collection, ca. 1951; H. Schmidt,
Hamburg, 1968.

Technical Summary
The painting was executed on a plain-weave canvas. It has been lined and mounted to a fivemember stretcher with one wooden crossbar. Based on a stamp on the stretcher, the lining canbe dated to the mid-nineteenth century.[1]The canvas was prepared with a light-colored ground that contains quartz,[2] which Rembrandt
and his workshop used after 1640. The paint was first applied wet-into-wet, with colors being
blended into one another. Details and highlights were subsequently added wet-over-dry. The artist
employed both glazes and impastos, as well as areas of scumbling. He also scratched into wet
paint with the butt-end of his brush to define tendrils of hair. The pigments are typical for
Rembrandt and the time period.[3]Numerous changes are discernable in visible light and with x-radiography, infrared reflectography,
and macro XRF scanning.[4] Originally the sitter’s hat bore a plume and was cocked at more of anangle. His hair was parted in the middle and not as full. Changes were also made to his collar andruff, as well as to the positions of his hands and sword. In addition, there was initially a curtain in
the upper-right corner.
Overall the painting is in good condition with minimal losses. The paint is somewhat thin in thesitter’s cloak and right wrist, as well as in parts of the background, probably due to overly
aggressive cleaning in the past. The pentimenti in the sitter’s hands have been inpainted, as
have the thin areas of the sitter’s cloak.
The painting is signed and dated in the lower right. The signature is well preserved. Cracks© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Man with a Sword
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running through the signature indicate that it is integral to the underlying and surrounding paintlayers.[5]Further technical information about this artwork is available in The Rembrandt Database.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The stamp says “F. Leedham, liner.” This is the stamp of Francis Leedham, who worked as a
picture liner in London between 1831 and 1858 (“Francis Leedham,” British picture restorers,
1600-1950–

L–

National

Portrait

Gallery,

accessed1

December

2018,

https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/directory-of-british-picture-restorers/britishpicture-restorers-1600-1950-l). Charles Eastlake singles him out, writing, “Francis Leedham,whose skill in lining pictures and in transferring them from wood to cloth, is well known andappreciated.” See Charles Lock Eastlake, Materials for a History of Oil Painting (London,
1847), 416.
2. Nicholas Eastaugh and Jilleen Nadolny, Analytical Report, 2 September 2012. The quartz
ground consists of a mixture of river clay, sand, and oil.
3. The pigments were analyzed using polarised light microscopy (PLM), scanning electron
microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX), Raman microscopy, and UVvisible, near-infrared micro-spectrophotometry. See Nicholas Eastaugh and Jilleen Nadolny,
Analytical Report, 2 September 2012.
4. Infrared reflectography was performed with an InGaAs infrared camera at 900 to 1700
nanometers. See Nicholas Eastaugh and Jilleen Nadolny, Analytical Report, 2 September
2012. Macro XRF scanning was performed by Geert van der Snickt, University of Amsterdam,
and Joris Dik, Technical University of Delft.
5. This summary is based on an examination report by Simon Howell, R. M. S. Shepherd
Associates, dated 29 November 2013, and an analytical report by Nicholas Eastaugh and
Jilleen Nadolny, Art Access and Research, dated 3 September 2012.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection