Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a
Rabbi)
Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)ca. 1645
oil on panel
22.2 x 18.4 cm
RR-109© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 2 of 12

How to cite
DeWitt, David. “Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-portrait-of-arabbi/ (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

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 3 of 12

This expressively rendered half-length oil sketch of an elderly bearded man

Comparative Figures

depicts the sitter in profile with slightly downcast eyes as he gazes toward
the book he holds in his hands. His fur-lined cloak and fur hat are rendered inocher and brownish tones, with only the shirt, beard and face standing out
from their tonal surroundings. Although the man’s physiognomy has been
articulated clearly, the body is so sketchily handled and thinly painted thatthe vertical grain of the panel is visible through the reddish-brown paint. His
arms and hands are indicated with only a few rough strokes, giving the work
an unfinished appearance.
This freely executed painting, which is known in nine other versions, hasbeen attributed to various artists over the years.[1] Wilhelm von Bodepublished it in 1883 as an autograph work by Rembrandt van Rijn.[2] On thebasis of a drawing in the Teylers Museum, which very likely was madedirectly after the present painting (fig 1),[3] Horst Gerson attributed both thedrawing and the painting (which he knew only from a photograph) to

Fig 1. Attributed to Gerbrand van
den Eeckhout, Profile of an Old
Man, black chalk heightened withwhite body color on paper, 206 x
157 mm, Teylers Museum,
Haarlem, inv. no. P64

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621–74).[4] The painting’s location remained
unknown throughout the twentieth century, but when it resurfaced for sale in2004 it was attributed to Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78).[5] In 2006 thepainting was included in an exhibition at the Jewish Historical Museum in
Amsterdam as attributed to Van den Eeckhout.[6] Three years later Ernst van
de Wetering argued that this small oil sketch was by Rembrandt and was theprimary version of the composition.[7]The fact that so many copies were made after this oil sketch reinforces theargument that it should be attributed to Rembrandt. The existence of thesecopies also strongly suggests that this work was viewed as having a special
significance in Rembrandt’s workshop, perhaps as a study of a special
character type (such as an old man), or as a lighting study, such as Van deWetering has established for other oil sketches by the master.[8]Dates of oil sketches are extremely difficult to determine. A terminus post

Fig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn or
School of Rembrandt, Woman
Weeping, ca. 1644, 21.3 x 16.8
cm, The Detroit Institute of Arts,
inv. 56.183, photo © 2014, Detroit
Institute of Arts

quem has been established by the dendrochronological analysis of Peter
Klein, who determined that the wood support would have been ready for use
from 1631 onwards.[9] Van de Wetering has argued that the painting can bedated loosely between 1645 and 1655.[10] One comparable oil sketch by themaster that narrows the chronological framework for this work is Woman
Weeping (fig 2).[11] Not only do these two small panel paintings have similardimensions (21.3 × 16.8 cm compared to 22.3 × 18.6 cm), but also in each
instance the face is described in more detail than the body and© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 4 of 12

background.[12] Woman Weeping presumably dates to around 1644, since it
almost certainly served as a preparatory study for Woman Taken in Adultery
in London.[13] The Leiden Collection sketch of this old man, thus, probably
dates to this same period, although in this instance it does not seem to have
served as a preliminary study for one of Rembrandt’s larger compositions.
Rembrandt had already had conceived a composition similar to this one earlyin his career, in a drawing of a seated old man dated 1628.[14] Evidently thisdrawing remained in use in his studio (not uncommon for his drawings),
because he revisited the subject matter and pose around 1639 in an
elaborate study in pen and ink, now in Paris (fig 3). This pen and ink drawing
depicts what appears to be the same model wearing the same costume,
including the distinctive hat.

Fig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, Seated
Old Man, pen and brown ink,
brown wash, 164 × 129 mm,
Fondation Custodia, Collection
Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. no. 4502

The identification of the old man as a rabbi, which Émile Michel had alreadyproposed in the nineteenth century, is not certain.[15] The basis of thisidentification is the wide flat beret, which Ashkenazi Jews wore in theseventeenth century.[16] However, Rembrandt’s follower Salomon Koninck(1609–56) often incorporated exotic features, including Jewish attributes,
when depicting learned old men,[17] and it remains possible that Rembrandt
also intended this kind of open reading for his figure. Koninck, who likely hadsome contact with the studio in the mid-1640s, also recast Rembrandt’s
1628 drawing into a painted composition,[18] and subsequently made a
specialty of single-figure depictions of old men in fancy costume. He may
well have known the present painted study as well.

- David DeWitt, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 5 of 12

Endnotes

1. Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, 21 x 18 cm, Musée du Louvre,
Paris, inv. no. R.F. 2384; Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, formerly(perhaps still) in the collection of Werner M. Wolf, Küsnacht, Switzerland; Workshop of
Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, 17 × 15 cm, private collection, Geneva;
Attributed to the School of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, 21.3 × 17.7 cm,
The Wernher Collection, Ranger’s House, London; Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old
Man, oil on panel [?], 21.5 × 16.5 cm, whereabouts unknown (sale, Huize Oolde, Laren,
Netherlands, on 25 September 1947); Attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn, Profile of an Old
Man, oil on panel, Van Tilburg Collection, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Follower ofRembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel [?], dimensions and whereabouts unknown(with Schoneman Galleries, New York, 1954); Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man,oil on panel, 19.7 × 15.7 cm, formerly in the Mikhailov collection (sale, Drouot Montaigne,
Paris, 31 May 1988, no. 33, as by Circle of Gerbrand van den Eeckhout); Attributed toRembrandt van Rijn, Head of a Rabbi, oil on panel, 20.3 x 16.5 cm, whereabouts unknown(sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 4 March 1899, no. 44).
2. Wilhelm von Bode, Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei (Braunschweig, 1883),
514.
3. See Michiel C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum (Haarlem, 1997), 2:
143–44, no. 129.
4. In Abraham Bredius and Horst Gerson, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the
Paintings (London, 1969), no. 228.
5. Wendela Burgemeister, “A Portrait of a Rabbi,” in Salomon Lilian Old Masters (Sales cat.
Amsterdam, Salomon Lilian, B. V.) (Zwolle, 2004), 30–33, no. 10.
6. Mirjam Alexander-Knotter, Jasper Hillegers, and Edward van Voolen, The “Jewish”
Rembrandt: The Myth Unraveled (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Joods Historisch Museum) (Zwolle,
2006), 78.
7. Van de Wetering provided an unpublished, informal essay on this work (on file at The Leiden
Collection) entitled “Remarks on Bredius 228,” in which he argued that RR-109 is an
autograph painting and is the primary version of the composition. He concluded that thescratches into wet paint in this work were imitated superficially in the other versions.
8. Ernst van de Wetering, “Rembrandt’s Oil Studies: New Light on an Old Problem,”in Rembrandt: Quest of a Genius, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum
Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Zwolle, 2006),
178–207.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 6 of 12

9. Prof. Peter Klein, report on dendrochronological analysis, 16 September 2006.
10. See Ernst van de Wetering, “Remarks on Bredius 228,” unpublished, informal essay on
RR-109 (on file at the Leiden Collection), in which the later date is suggested by thecomparison to a drawing: Hendickje Stoffels Seated at a Window, Eyes Shut, around 1655,
pen and brush, 163 × 175 mm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, inv. NMH 2084/1863.
11. The reattribution to Rembrandt was proposed and argued by Ernst van de Wetering in“Rembrandt’s Oil Studies: New Light on an Old Problem,” in Rembrandt: Quest of a Genius,
ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin,
Gemäldegalerie) (Zwolle and Amsterdam, 2006), 197–200, against the previous assessmentof Detroit Institute of Arts curator George S. Keyes et al., in Masters of Dutch Painting: The
Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, 2004), 180–81, in which he assigned the painting to an
Anonymous Dutch artist of the seventeenth century.
12. A certain restraint, however, is maintained in the Leiden Collection painting, even in thesketchier, looser passages.
13. Rembrandt van Rijn, The Woman Taken in Adultery, signed and dated, 1644, panel, 88 ×
65.4 cm, The National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG 45.
14. Rembrandt van Rijn, Seated Old Man with a Stick, Turned to the Left, 1628, red chalk andbrown and gray wash with white heightening, 204 × 157 mm, Dreiflessen Collection (Libernia
Collection), Mettingen; Peter Schatborn and Leonore van Sloten, Old Drawings, New Names:
Rembrandt and His Contemporaries (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis)(Varik, 2014), 103.
15. Émile Michel, Rembrandt, sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps (Paris, 1893), 343. Jasper Hilligers
allows the possibility as well in his entry on the painting; Mirjam Alexander-Knotter, Jasper
Hillegers, and Edward van Voolen, The “Jewish” Rembrandt: The Myth Unraveled (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Joods Historisch Museum) (Zwolle, 2006), 78.
16. Michael Zell, Reframing Rembrandt: Jews and the Christian Image in Seventeenth-Century
Amsterdam (Berkeley, 2002), 48; with reference to Alfred Rubens, A History of Jewish
Costume (New York, 1967), 158.
17. For example, a scholar with a tall hat and a richly embroidered robe, in Salomon Koninck,
The Old Scholar, around 1648/1650, oil on canvas, 102 × 144 cm, The State Hermitage
Museum,St.

Petersburg,

inv.

no.

GE

768;

WernerSumowksi,

GemäldederRembrandtschüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 3: 1647, no. 1119, 1693 ill.
18. Salomon Koninck, Seated Old Man with a Stick, Turned to the Left, around 1645/1650, oil on
panel, 60 × 48 cm, Galleria Sabauda, Turin, inv. no. 394; Werner Sumowksi, Gemälde derRembrandtschüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 3:1648, no. 1124, 1698 ill. Peter
Schatborn reports that Bernhard Schnackenburg has attributed this painting to Jan Lievens,which does not appear convincing: Peter Schatborn, Old Drawings, New Names: Rembrandt© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 7 of 12

and His Contemproaries (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (Varik, 2014),
103.

ProvenanceÉduard Warneck, Paris, by 1883 (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 27 May 1926, no. 70[to Blummereich for 200,000 francs]).
Richard von Schnitzler, Cologne, by 1931.
Private collection, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, by 1958 [Kunsthandel Piet de Boer, 1962].
[Guttmann Galleries, Los Angeles, 1985].
Private collection, possibly Switzerland.
Private collection, possibly Norway.
Michiel and Debbie Zwetsloot, Scotland, by 2004 [to Salomon Lilian, B.V.].
[Salomon Lilian, B.V., Amsterdam, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2005, as by Samuel van Hoogstraten.

Exhibition History
Paris, location unknown, “Exposition de tableaux de Maîtres anciens au profit du Inondes duMidi,” January 1887, no. 122 [lent by Éduard Warneck, Paris].
The Hague, Haagsche Kunstkring, “Tentoonstelling van Oude Portretten,” 1 July–1
September 1903, no. 115 [lent by Éduard Warneck, Paris].
Düsseldorf, Kunstverein für die Rhienland and Westfalen, “Ausstellung Alter Malerei aus
rheinisch-westfälischen Privatbesitz,” January–February 1928, no. 72 [lent by Éduard
Warneck, Paris].
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, “Meisterwerke aus baden-württembergischen Privatzbesitz,” 9October 1958–10 January 1959, no. 158 [lent by a private collector].
Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, on loan with the permanent collection, October
2005–June 2008, as by School of Rembrandt [lent by the present owner].
Amsterdam, Joods Historisch Museum, “The ‘Jewish’ Rembrandt: The Myth Unravelled,” 10
November 2006–4 February 2007, as by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (?) [lent by the present
owner].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 7 May© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 8 of 12

2009–March 2011 [lent by the current owner].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, andTheir Contemporaries,” 11 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham, Ala., Birmingham
Museum of Art, 31 January–26 April 2015, no. 35 [lent by the present owner].
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 29 April 2015–14
November 2016 [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].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden
Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the present
owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent 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
Von Bode, Wilhelm. Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei. Braunschweig, 1883,
514.
Dutuit, Eugène M. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt. Paris, 1885, 53.
Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Rembrandt-Galerie. Stuttgart, 1886, 76, no. 330.
Michel, Émile. Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, and His Time. 2 vols. Translated by F.
Simmonds. New York, 1894, 564. Originally published as Rembrandt, sa vie, son oeuvre etson temps, Paris, 1893.
Von Bode, Wilhelm and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. Rembrandt: beschreibendes Verzeichnis
seiner Gemälde mit den heliographischen Nachbildungen. 8 vols. Paris, 1897–1906, 4:208,
no. 307.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Meisterwerke der Porträtmalerei auf der Ausstellung im Haag
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 9 of 12

1903. Munich, 1903, 39, no. 115.
Scholten, Hendrik Jacobus. Muse?e Teyler a? Haarlem: Catalogue raisonne? des dessins
des e?coles franc?aise et hollandaise. Haarlem, 1904, 179 (as by Rembrandt).
Valentiner, Wilhelm R., and Adolf Rosenberg Rembrandt: Des Meisters Gemälde. 2 vols.
Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1909, 2: 353.
Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon:Auf Grund Archivalischer
Forschungen Bearbeitet. 3 vols. Vienna and Liepzig, 1906–11, 2:408 (as an uncertain
attribution).
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: 227–28. 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.
Cohen, Walter. “Alte Malerei aus rheinisch-westfälischen Privatbesitz.” Der Cicerone 20(January 1928): 60.
Förster, Otto H. Die Sammlung Dr. Richard von Schnitzler. Munich, 1931, 33–34, no. 42.
Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. London, 1937, no. 228. Translated from
Rembrandt: Schilderijen. Utrecht, 1935.
Van Gelder, Hendrik Enno. Rembrandt. Amsterdam, 1947, 36, 39.
Sumowski, Werner. “Gerbrand van den Eeckhout als Zeichner.” Oud Holland 77 (1962): 18.
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt: Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, no. 179 (as an uncertain attribution).
Bredius, Abraham, and Horst Gerson. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings.
London, 1969, no. 228 (as probably by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout).
Arpino, Giovanni, and Paolo Lecaldano. L’opera pittorica complete di Rembrandt. Milan,
1969, under “altre opere rembrandtiane gia considerate dalla critica o presenti in pubbliche
raccolte.”
Plomp, Michiel. The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum. 2 vols. Haarlem, 1997, 2:143–44,
under no. 129 (as an uncertain attribution).
Burgemeister, Wendela. “A Portrait of a Rabbi.” In Salomon Lilian Old Masters. Sales cat.
Amsterdam, Salomon Lilian, B.V. Zwolle, 2004, 30–33, no. 10 (as by Samuel van
Hoogstraten).
Alexander-Knotter, Mirjam, Jasper Hillegers, and Edward van Voolen. The “Jewish”
Rembrandt: The Myth Unraveled. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Joods Historisch Museum. Zwolle,
2006, 78–79 (as by Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout [?]). Originally published as De “joodse”
Rembrandt: De mythe ontrafeld. Zwolle, 2006.
Weller, Dennis P. “A Portrait of a Rabbi.” In Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, andTheir Contemporaries. Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 10 of 12

Birmingham Museum of Art. Raleigh, 2014, 184–87, no. 35.
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, 628, no. 238.
Surh, Dominique. “Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi).” In Masterpieces of The Leiden
Collection: The Age of Rembrandt. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 64–65. Exh.
cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi).” In Rembrandt and His
Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 54–55; 176,
no. 17. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 72–73.
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, 22; 32. 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. “Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi).” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 180–81;
243, no. 57. 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.
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, 90, 92, no. 24. [Exhibition catalogue also publishedin French and Arabic.]
Manuth, Volker, Marieke de Winkel, and Rudie van Leeuwen. Rembrandt. The Complete
Paintings. Cologne, 2019, 416, 695, no. 301, 700.

Versions
Versions and Copies

1. Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, 21 x 18 cm, Musée du Louvre,
Paris, inv. no. R.F. 2384.

2. Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, formerly (perhaps still) in thecollection of Werner M. Wolf, Küsnacht, Switzerland.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 11 of 12

3. Workshop of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, 17 x 15 cm, private collection,
Geneva.

4. Attributed to the School of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, 21.3 x 17.7 cm,
The Wernher Collection, Ranger’s House, London.

5. Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel [?], 21.5 x 16.5 cm, whereabouts
unknown (sale, Huize Oolde, Laren, Netherlands, on 25 September 1947).

6. Attributed to Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, Van Tilburg Collection,
University of Pretoria, South Africa.

7. Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel [?], whereabouts unknown (withSchoneman Galleries, New York, 1954).

8. Follower of Rembrandt, Profile of an Old Man, oil on panel, 19.7 x 15.7 cm, formerly in the
Mikhailov collection (sale, Drouot Montaigne, Paris, 31 May 1988, no. 33, as by circle ofGerbrand van den Eeckhout).

9. Attributed to Rembrandt, Head of a Rabbi, oil on panel, 8 x 6 ½ in., whereabouts unknown(sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 4 March 1899, no. 44).

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular oak from the Baltic-Polish region,
derives from a tree felled after 1623, with a plausible creation date from 1631 onward.[1] Narrowwood additions have been added to the left, right, and lower edges and the enlarged composition
has been cradled.
The panel reverse has import stamps, handwritten numerals, and machine tool marks, but no wax
seals, labels, stencils or panel maker’s marks.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a pale brown imprimatura,
which has been used as a middle tone. The paint is very thinly applied in some areas and thickly
applied in others, creating a rich and varied surface. Fingerprints made in wet paint, presumably
by the artist himself, are located along the center of the lower left edge and the lower right corner.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at
900–1700 nanometers.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in agood state of preservation.[2]Further technical information about this artwork is available in The Rembrandt Database.

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

Portrait of an Old Man (Possibly a Rabbi)
Page 12 of 12

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Peter Klein’s 2006 dendrochronology report.
2. Entry based on an examination report prepared by Yvonne Szafran, head of paintings
conservation, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2011.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection