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Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old
Testament Patriarch Dan)
Workshop of Rembrandt van Rijn (possibly
Ferdinand Bol)

164(1?)
oil on panel
103.1 x 83.5 cm
signed and dated in dark paint, lower left:“Rembrandt : / f. 164(1?)”
RR-125

How to cite
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)” (2020). In The Leiden
Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

The bearded elder in this imposing painting commands attention through his piercing

Comparative Figures

gaze and compelling, dignified presence. Standing before a stone wall and a dark
curtain with his hands gently clasped at his waist, the figure conveys a powerful senseof gravitas. Light from the upper left illuminates the rough features of his deeply
lined face, which is unmoving yet psychologically alert. His white turban, with its
strands of gold, and the stunning gold-and-jeweled clasp of his fur-trimmed cloak,
evokes an historical past of biblical times and lands where stories from scripture
express moral and ethical concerns fundamental to human existence. That this elder
has thought carefully about such issues is evident in the dim recesses of the interior
behind him, where one sees an opened book on his desk, a skull, and a sculpted
serpent with an animal-like head entwined around a column.
The visual and psychological power of Man in Oriental Costume reflects the impact ofRembrandt van Rijn’s (1606–69) artistic achievement, for this painting is a direct
copy, nearly identical in size and handling, of the master’s large Man in Oriental
Costume (King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy), ca. 1639, in Chatsworth House (fig 1).[1]Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Man in
Oriental Costume (King Uzziah Strickenwith Leprosy), ca. 1639, oil on poplar
or lime wood panel with arched top,
102.8 x 78.8 cm, Collection of theDuke of Devonshire and Trustees of
the Chatsworth Settlement,
Chatsworth, inv. no. 548, ©
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Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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The artist who made this copy, likely a member of Rembrandt’s workshop, used asimilar palette of browns, ochres, grays, and white. He also varied his brushwork to

Chatsworth Settlement Trustees /Bridgeman Images.

emulate that of the prototype, building up and densely layering paints in some areas
and applying them thinly in others. He used assured, unblended brushstrokes to model
the flesh tones on the left side of the man’s face, applying pinks and yellows tohighlight the bridge of the nose and the cheekbone. As in the original, small specks ofwhite are visible along the lower eyelid, and a reddish-brown stroke defines thepouches of skin beneath the left eye. Like Rembrandt, the copyist created shadows on
the right side of the face by allowing the ground to remain largely exposed. He used asimilar technique to render shadows in the beard, eyebrows, and forehead.[2] As in the
Chatsworth painting, thick, layered brushstrokes evoke the complex structure of theturban.
Despite these considerable similarities, the paintings display certain differences.
Rembrandt’s modeling in the Chatsworth painting is more integrated, allowing for

Fig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn, Man in a
Turban, 1632, oil on canvas, 152.7 x111.1 cm, Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York, inv. no. 20.155.2.

softer transitions between areas of light and shadow, such as along the side of theelder’s face and near the hands.[3] In addition, the figure’s head is slightly tilted to theright in the prototype, giving him a reflective, self-contained appearance, whereas thestraightforward positioning of the head and neck in the Leiden Collection painting, as
well as the figure’s determined expression, is more assertive.
Rembrandt depicted figures in Orientalizing costume throughout the 1630s and early
1640s.[4] He portrayed many of these in bust or half-length formats, often tronies, orcharacter studies, of individuals dressed in imaginative and fanciful clothing.
Elements of Turkish and Persian dress often appear in these works, such as in Man in
a Turban (fig 2) from 1632.[5] These paintings, which appealed to a taste for theFig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn,
Belshazzar’s Feast, ca. 1636–38, oil oncanvas, 167.6 x 209.2 cm, National
Gallery, London, inv. no. NG6350, ©
National Gallery, London / Art
Resource, NY.

“exotic” among collectors, gave Rembrandt the opportunity to explore different
figure types, as well as the effects of light and shadow on a range of materials andtextures. Figures in Orientalizing costume were also important for Rembrandt’s
historical scenes, where Eastern-style or exotic dress lent a degree of authenticity tobiblical narratives.[6] In Belshazzar’s Feast (fig 3) from ca. 1636–38, for instance,
Belshazzar wears an imposing white turban with ornamental features and a lavish robewith a golden clasp, similar to those in Man in Oriental Costume.[7]The subject of the Chatsworth painting and the identification of the elder have beenmatters of some dispute.[8] Throughout its early history, the Chatsworth painting was
widely described as depicting “a rabbi” or “a Turk,” while twentieth-century scholars
offered more specific identifications, suggesting that the figure represented Moses or
his brother Aaron from the Old Testament, or the Renaissance alchemist and[9]philosopher Paracelsus.

In 1948, Robert Eisler proposed that the Chatsworth

painting represented Uzziah, king of Judea, who had been struck with leprosy for

Fig 4. William Pether, after
Rembrandt, A Jew Rabbi, 1764,
mezzotint, 455 x 352 mm, British
Museum, London, inv. no.
1868,0822.2026, © The Trustees of© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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having entered the temple in Jerusalem during a sacrifice (2 Chronicles 26:16–20).[10]the British Museum.

Eisler connected the episode in Chronicles to a later one, in which King Hezekiahordered the brazen serpent to be destroyed (2 Kings 18:4). This interpretation rests
primarily on the patches of gray, mottled skin on the elder’s face.[11]Many subsequent scholars have agreed with Eisler’s identification. Gary Schwartz, forexample, argued that Rembrandt would have relied on Flavius Josephus’s account ofUzziah’s fall from grace as told in the Antiquities of the Jews. Josephus is the only
author who mentions the figure’s mottled skin, the altar and temple setting, and thelight entering the space through a window.[12] Nonetheless, questions persist about theidentity of the elder in the Chatsworth painting that are also relevant when
considering the copy in The Leiden Collection. The blotchy areas on the figure’s
cheeks in the Chatsworth painting are noticeably absent in the Leiden Collection
version, as well as in other near-contemporary painted copies (discussed below). The
blotches also do not appear in eighteenth-century mezzotints made after the
Chatsworth painting by William Pether (1731–1819) (fig 4).[13] As the artist

Fig 5. Jacques de Gheyn II, after
Karel van Mander, Dan, from theTwelve Sons of Jacob, engraving, 157
x 107 mm, Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York, inv. no. 49.95.1805.

responsible for the Leiden Collection version adhered closely to Rembrandt’s
prototype, it is unlikely that he would have altered this crucial detail. Instead,
Rembrandt likely depicted another biblical figure than Uzziah.[14]
Christian Tümpel has provided the most likely identification of the sitter, arguing that
he represents Dan, one of the twelve patriarchs and one of the twelve sons of Jacob,
as told in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament.[15] Tümpel situatedRembrandt’s painting in relation to an engraving of Dan from a print series of the
Twelve Patriarchs by Jacques de Gheyn II after Karel van Mander (fig 5).[16] The
imposing figure of Dan, wearing a large turban, appears in the foreground of a rocky
landscape holding a scroll and a rod entwined with a snake, the attribute associatedwith Dan’s dispensation of justice. The scene behind the patriarch in De Gheyn’s printrefers to Jacob’s prophecy for his son: “Dan shall judge his people like another tribe
in Israel. Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth the horse’s

Fig 6. Workshop of Rembrandt van
Rijn (possibly Ferdinand Bol), detailof signature of Man in Oriental
Costume (possibly the Old Testament
Patriarch Dan) (brightened to increase
readability), 164(1?), oil on panel,
103.1 x 83.5 cm, The Leiden
Collection, New York, inv. no.
RR-125.

heels that his rider may fall backward” (Genesis 49:16–17).[17]Although the elder in Rembrandt’s painting does not hold the rod or scroll associatedwith Dan’s dispensation of justice, his commanding stature in the foreground of thecomposition reflects De Gheyn’s print, as well as the sense of authority and moral
strength embodied in the engraved figure.[18] The presence of the serpent-likecreature wrapped around the column in the background—with a leonine face, fangs,
and horns—also supports this identification. As the inscription that appears beneaththe image of Dan in Jan Sadeler’s series of the Twelve Patriarchs (1585) describes,
Dan “is otherwise as a horned viper on the path,” a figure who is associated not onlywith prudence, but also with the dangers of its failings.[19]Fig 7. Ferdinand Bol, The Philosopher,
1640–42, oil on canvas, 112 x 108 cm,
Colección Pérez Simón, Mexico.

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Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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The high quality of the Leiden Collection painting and its similarities to Rembrandt’s
original, both in size and execution, are striking.[20] The artist worked confidently andfreely from the Chatsworth composition to achieve the powerful characterization ofthis patriarch. With only a few exceptions—the adjustment of the angle of the sitter’s
face and minor changes to the figure’s right eye, the upper contour of the turban, andthe ruffles of the white shirt—he made no changes to the composition.[21] The artist
must have worked directly from Rembrandt’s prototype and was closely acquainted
with the master’s technique and distinctive manner of painting.
The making of copies formed an integral part of Rembrandt’s workshop practice,both as a teaching device and as a way to satisfy the market demand for replicas.[22]While pupils copied Rembrandt’s works in order to learn his manner of painting, heoften encouraged them to develop their own interpretations of his subjects. An
excellent example of this practice is Ferdinand Bol’s The Angel Leaving Tobias and
His Family from around 1637, in which the artist, who was active as a pupil andassistant in Rembrandt’s workshop from about 1636 until 1641, copied Rembrandt’s
prototype but changed the direction of the departing angel.[23] A direct copy such as
Man in Oriental Costume, on the other hand, would have been made for the market.[24]As Josua Bruyn has suggested, at times Rembrandt’s paintings must have(temporarily) remained in the studio in order to provide prototypes for artists to copy,
a scenario that is likely to have been the case with the Chatsworth painting.[25]Dendrochronology dates the Leiden Collection panel to around 1637 or later,[26]which corresponds to the painting’s signature and date of “Rembrandt : / f. 164(1?)”(fig 6).[27] This evidence suggests that Man in Oriental Costume was executed almost
contemporaneously with the original, making it among the earliest known copies—if
not the earliest—after Rembrandt’s prototype.[28]Despite the Leiden Collection painting’s outstanding quality, identifying its artist ischallenging. One strong possibility is that Ferdinand Bol executed this work in his
final year in Rembrandt’s workshop. Rembrandt had engaged Bol in making copies
after his paintings regularly in the late 1630s, a practice that may have continued aspart of Rembrandt’s workshop production into the following decade.[29] Bol has been
associated with other copies after the Chatsworth painting,[30] and he executed aclosely related work, The Philosopher (fig 7), in the early 1640s.[31] This painting
depicts a similarly clothed and turbaned figure who sits wearily in his chair with hishead on his hand, gazing at the viewer with a melancholic expression. The painting’s
strong contrasts of light and dark, which Bol used to highlight the figure’s features
and the different textures of the costume, as well as the reuse of certain pictorial
motifs from the Chatsworth painting, such as the nearly identical interior setting,reflect the influence of Rembrandt’s prototype.[32] Bol continued to work in a mannerstrongly impacted by his master following his departure from the workshop in 1641,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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adapting compositional and figural motifs from Rembrandt’s work into his own andusing light as a powerful means of expression.[33] This approach to handling light andform, especially in the rendering of material surfaces, emerges in a number of Bol’s
works from the 1640s, including those in The Leiden Collection.[34] An attribution of
Man in Oriental Costume to Bol, an artist well trained in Rembrandt’s painterly style,would explain the highly capable hand responsible for this extraordinary copy.[35]The appeal of Rembrandt’s Man in Oriental Costume was immediate and lasting. The
existence of the Leiden Collection version and other seventeenth- and earlyeighteenth-century copies, including those in the Kingston Lacy Estate, Dresden, andPotsdam—the former documented as early as 1659—indicate that a market for the
subject existed shortly after Rembrandt completed the composition.[36] Its appeal
continued over the centuries, and nearly forty copies and variants after it exist, somedating as late as the nineteenth or twentieth centuries.[37]The particular esteem enjoyed by the Chatsworth painting and the Leiden Collection
copy is reflected in their impressive early provenances. The Chatsworth painting is
first documented in Rome, in the collection of the sister of Cardinal Jules Mazarin(1602–61), before it entered the Cardinal’s collection in Paris around the time of hisdeath in 1661.[38] It subsequently changed hands several times before the 3rd Duke of
Devonshire purchased it in 1742. By the mid-eighteenth century, The Leiden
Collection’s Man in Oriental Costume was also in Paris, where, after possibly
belonging to King Louis XV of France (1710–74), the king gave it to Gerard Binet(1712–80), valet de chambre for the dauphin, Louis de France, and governor of the
Louvre.[39] The high regard for Man in Oriental Costume in Paris is fittingly captured
in its sale catalogue entry from the collection of the royal secretary Pierre Cauletd’Hauteville in 1774, which describes it as “surprising for [its] character, [and] beautyof color and effect.”[40] The painting changed hands several times in the lateeighteenth century and finally entered a private English collection two centuries later,where it remained until its acquisition by The Leiden Collection in 2019.

- Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2020

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Endnotes
1. The Leiden Collection version of Man in Oriental Costume has been untraced since the late eighteenth
century and has remained largely unknown to scholars; see Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt
Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989),
296, copy no. 3 (not to be confused with copy no. 1 as suggested by the Corpus authors); Michiel
Roscam Abbing, Rembrandt toont sijn konst: Bijdragen over Rembrandt-documenten uit de periode
1648–1756 (Leiden, 1999), 158, 161.
The literature on the Chatsworth painting is extensive. See Bruyn et al., Corpus, vol. 3, 1635–1642,
A128, 289–96, and, for a more recent discussion, see Tico Seifert, ed., Rembrandt: Britain’s Discoveryof the Master (Exh. cat. Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery) (Edinburgh, 2018), 26–29, fig. 21; 126,
no. 5. The last digit of the date on the Chatsworth painting has alternatively been read as a 3, 5, and 9.
While some scholars have dated the painting to 1635, the determination that the painting was executedon poplar, a type of wood that Rembrandt used around 1639–40, has brought a consensus to a 1639
dating. See 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), no. 164, 563–64.
2. See further discussion in Technical Summary.
3. At the time of this entry, the author did not have the opportunity to study the Chatsworth painting inperson, but it appears that Man in Oriental Costume has a cooler tonality than the Chatsworthcomposition, and the light defines the figure’s form more crisply and clearly than in the latter work.
These differences, however, may result from a discolored varnish layer.
4. See, for example, recent discussion in Anja K. Sevcik, Inside Rembrandt 1606–1669 (Exh. cat. Cologne,
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud; Prague, National Gallery) (Petersberg, 2019), nos.
28–43. Dutch global trade provided a context for these interests in the “exotic,” and Rembrandt likely
had the opportunity to see men clothed in similar Middle Eastern dress in Amsterdam. The oft-cited
visit of members of the Persian embassy to Amsterdam in 1626 appears to have had a lasting effect on
the artistic interests of Rembrandt and his circle.
5. Seealso

Rembrandt,

Portrait

of

a

Man

in

Oriental

Costume,

1633(Bayerische

Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich); Man in an Oriental Costume, 1635
(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); and Rembrandt van Rijn and Workshop, Man in an Oriental Costume, ca.
1635 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).
6. Rembrandt would have learned this approach from his teacher Pieter Lastman. For further discussion ofLastman as a history painter, see the essay “Pieter Lastman’s David and Uriah: Storytelling and thePassions” in this catalogue.
7. Rembrandt used the motif of the turban in other contexts as well, such as Scholar in His Study, 1634
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Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
Page 8 of 20(National Gallery, Prague). See Anja K. Sevcik, Inside Rembrandt 1606–1669 (Exh. cat. Cologne,
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud; Prague, National Gallery) (Petersberg, 2019), no. 44.
8. The distinctive character and dress of the sitter and the ambiguity of the interior background setting
distinguish it among Rembrandt’s related tronies and historical scenes. While Rembrandt began to paintlarge-scale historical figures in Amsterdam in the early to mid-1630s, including The Leiden Collection’sMinerva in Her Study, as the authors of the Corpus have noted, the Chatsworth painting cannot be “fitted
readily into this sequence.” More recently, Dagmar Hirschfelder has explained how, in the Chatsworth
painting, “the lifelike depiction of the figure, its portrait-like character and in places, such as in the faceof the man, especially free handling of the colors, correspond to the concept of tronies. At the sametime, it is treated as a single-figure history painting, which should be understood as a ‘detachment’ since
the figure originates from the narrative context of a history but is no longer engaged in it.” ChristianTümpel called this quality “Herauslösung.” See Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), A128, 292–94;
Christian Tümpel, “Traditional and Groundbreaking: Rembrandt’s Iconography,” in Rembrandt: Quest of
a Genius, Ernst van der Wetering et al., ed. Bob van den Boogert (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het
Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Zwolle, 2006), 125–52; Dagmar
Hirschfelder, Tronie und Porträt in der niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 2008),
188.
9. Bauch identified the figure as Moses and related it to the raising of the brazen serpent (Exodus 4:3 and7:15) (Kurt Bauch, Rembrandt: Gemälde [Berlin, 1966], no. 164). Weisbach (Werner Weisbach,Rembrandt [Berlin, 1926], 289–90, no. 82) and Benesch (Otto Benesch, Rembrandt: Biographical andCritical Study, trans. James Emmons [New York, 1957], 44) identified the figure as Moses’s brother,
Aaron. Valentiner (Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Rembrandt’s Conception of Historical Portraiture,” Art
Quarterly 11, no. 2 [Spring 1948]: 119–22) proposed that the painting represented the Renaissancephysician Paracelsus, and that the snake and the column could be an aesculapius. These interpretations,however, have many inconsistencies with the image itself. For a summary of the opinions discussed
above, 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), no.
164, 563–64.
10. Eisler first proposed this identification in a letter to the painting’s owners, and it was subsequently
published in Abraham Bredius and Horst Gerson, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of Paintings(London, 1969), 562–63, no. 179.
11. Although the authors of the Corpus call the identification of the figure as Uzziah a “satisfactory
explanation of the diseased skin of the sitter,” the appearance of the skin in fact suggests discolorationof the paint or a change related to a later restoration. The placement of the gray patches also does not
relate to the biblical text, which states that “he [Uzziah] was leprous in his forehead.” See Josua Bruyn etal., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research
Project (The Hague, 1989), 294; Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
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6, Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, with collaboration of Carin van Nes, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2014), 564.
12. For Josephus’s account, see Antiquities of the Jews IX, 222–27. Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt, His Life, His
Paintings: A New Biography with All Accessible Paintings Illustrated in Colour (New York, 1985), 176.
See also Amy Golahny, Rembrandt’s Reading: The Artist’s Bookshelf of Ancient Poetry and History(Amsterdam, 2003), 166–68. Larry Silver and Shelley Perlove, Rembrandt’s Faith: Church and Temple
in the Dutch Golden Age (University Park, 2009), 129–30, argue that Uzziah, situated within the larger
religious debates of Remonstrants and Counter-Remonstrants in the Dutch Republic, may have been
seen as an allegory for good and bad government.
13. See Versions. Pether made three mezzotints after the painting beginning in 1764. These were followedby prints by other artists, largely based on Pether’s example. Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt
Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989),
295.
14. Consensus is still lacking among scholars, evidenced in more recent publications such as Tico Seifert,ed., Rembrandt: Britain’s Discovery of the Master (Exh. cat. Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery)(Edinburgh, 2018), which calls the Chatsworth painting “Man in an Oriental Costume (King Uzziah).”
15. Christian Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour (Antwerp, 1993), 187, 399, no. 77. Jacob’s twelvesons would become the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel.
16. De Gheyn and Van Mander’s series has been dated between 1587–91. For this series and other sixteenthcentury precedents, see Ilja M. Veldman and H.J. de Jonge, “The Sons of Jacob: The Twelve Patriarchsin Sixteenth-Century Netherlandish Prints and Popular Culture,” Simiolus 15, no. 3/4 (1985): 176–96.
17. On his deathbed, Jacob summoned all of his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell
you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob;and hearken unto Israel your father” (Genesis 49:1–2).
18. For Rembrandt’s depictions of other biblical patriarchs, particularly Abraham, see Larry Silver and
Shelley Perlove, Rembrandt’s Faith: Church and Temple in the Dutch Golden Age (University Park,
2009), 69–107.
19. The series of the Twelve Patriarchs by Jan Sadeler after Crispijn van der Broeck first appeared in
Gerard de Jode’s illustrated Bible, Thesaurus veteris et novi testament (Antwerp), in 1585. A later edition
was published in Amsterdam in 1646. The inscription begins similarly to the biblical verse cited above:“Dan has become the judge of the people, and also of each tribe. He is otherwise as a horned viper on
the path that bites the heels of a game horse so that the rider falls backward.” Sadeler’s print reflects theimportant moral and didactic function that such depictions of the Twelve Patriarchs held, serving as
models of virtue and warnings of vice. The negative appraisal of Dan’s character emerged in The
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, a popular literary text originating in the early Christian era that was
widely translated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Along with the Bible, it provided a source
for artists. Maarten van Heemskerck, who published a print series of the Twelve Patriarchs in 1550,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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evoked this tradition in describing Dan as “treacherous.” In the foreground of Heemskerck’s image, thehead of Janus appears beside a serpent-like creature with large ears and fangs. See Dirck Volkertsz.
Coornhert, after Maarten van Heemskerck, Dan, no. 7 of the series of the Twelve Patriarchs, 1550,
etching. Ilja M. Veldman and H.J. de Jonge, “The Sons of Jacob: The Twelve Patriarchs in SixteenthCentury Netherlandish Prints and Popular Culture,” Simiolus 15, no. 3/4 (1985): 183, 196.
20. One important distinction between this copy and the Chatsworth panel is that the latter work hasrounded upper corners.
21. No underdrawings have been found in the Leiden Collection work. These observations are based on thetechnical examination and imaging of the painting undertaken by Kristin deGhetaldi. For further
discussion, see the Technical Summary.
22. The Leiden Collection’s Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress, for example—a variant of Rembrandt’s
full-length self-portrait by one of his first pupils, Isaac de Jouderville—indicates that pupils were
engaged in this activity already at the turn of the 1630s. For the subject of copies in Rembrandt’s
workshop, see Ernst van de Wetering, “Problems of Apprenticeship and Studio Collaboration,” in Josua
Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt
Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 48–51; Josua Bruyn, “Studio Practice and Production,” in Josua
Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt
Research Project (The Hague, 1989), 12–22; Josua Bruyn, “Rembrandt’s Workshop: Its Function and
Production,” in Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop, ed. Christopher Brown, Jan Kelch, and Pieter
J.J. van Thiel (Exh. cat. Berlin, Altes Museum; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; London, National Gallery)(New Haven, 1991), 1: 68–89; Michiel Franken, “Learning by Imitation: Copying Paintings in
Rembrandt’s Workshop,” in Rembrandt: Quest of a Genius, Ernst van de Wetering et al., ed. Bob van den
Boogert (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin) (Zwolle, 2006), 153–77.
23. Rembrandt, The Angel Leaving Tobias and His Family, ca. 1637 (Musée du Louvre, Paris); andFerdinand Bol, copy after The Angel Leaving Tobias and His Family, ca. 1637 (Collection Nathan Saban,
Miami). For Bol’s other copies after Rembrandt’s works, including drawings and paintings, see David de
Witt and Leonore van Sloten, “Ferdinand Bol: Rembrandt’s Disciple,” in Ferdinand Bol and Govert
Flinck: Rembrandt’s Master Pupils, ed. Norbert Middelkoop (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het
Rembrandthuis; Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum) (Zwolle, 2017), 40–53, esp. 44–48.
24. The possibility exists that this copy was made on commission. The making of copies was a regular partof Rembrandt’s business activity in which Ferdinand Bol—as well as Govaert Flinck—took part. My
thanks to Stephanie Dickey for discussing the role of copies on the Amsterdam market and theemergence of the “Rembrandt brand.” Also see, most recently, David de Witt, “Govert Flinck Learns to
Paint Like Rembrandt,” in Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck: Rembrandt’s Master Pupils, ed. Norbert
Middelkoop (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum)(Zwolle, 2017), 23–26; and David de Witt and Leonore van Sloten, “Ferdinand Bol: Rembrandt’s
Disciple,” in Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck, 42, 45. Other copies after Rembrandt’s works include:© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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Workshop of Rembrandt, copy after Self-Portrait with a Gorget, ca. 1629 (Royal Cabinet of Paintings
Mauritshuis, The Hague); and Workshop of Rembrandt, copy after Portrait of Saskia, ca. 1645/50(Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp). For a broader discussion on the role of copies in Dutch art ofthis period, see Anna Tummers, “‘By His Hand’: The Paradox of Seventeenth-Century
Connoisseurship,” in Art Market and Connoisseurship: A Closer Look at Paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens
and Their Contemporaries, ed. Anna Tummers and Koenraed Jonckheere (Amsterdam, 2008), 38–40.
25. The Chatsworth painting was in the collection of one of Cardinal Mazarin’s sisters, Hieronyma(1614–56) or Laura Margherita (1608–85), in Rome in the 1650s before entering the cardinal’s
collection in Paris around 1661 (see further below). It is unclear when exactly the painting left
Rembrandt’s workshop or the conditions of the original purchase. See Michiel Roscam Abbing,Rembrandt 2006, vol. 2., New Rembrandt Documents (Leiden 2006), no. 54, 77–78; and Josua Bruyn,“Studio Practice and Production,” in Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 22.
26. The Leiden Collection painting consists of three joined oak panels. This format is consistent with
Rembrandt’s supports, which varied from single panels to two or three panels joined together. See
further discussion in Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt: The Painter at Work, rev. ed. (Berkeley, 2009),
11–16. The dendrochronology report, performed by Peter Klein, is kept on file at The Leiden
Collection.
27. Technical examination has found that the signature and date are integral to the surrounding paint layers
and exhibit a similar pattern of craquelure, which suggests they are contemporaneous with the executionof the painting. The signature and date have also been strengthened in places, particularly around the“Re,” the “f. 1,” and the last digit of the date. The latter is difficult to decipher and has beenalternatively read as a 1, 3, or 4, though the proposed date of 1641 is the most plausible. I would like tothank Kristin deGhetaldi for our conversations about the technical evidence involving the signature.
Whether Rembrandt or someone else from his workshop was responsible for the signature is unknown;
however, the upright, somewhat stiff lettering appears to differ from other known Rembrandt signaturesfrom this period of his career. Unfortunately, the signature on the Chatsworth painting (“Rembran / f
163(9?)”), which is similarly located in the lower left corner, is not clear enough for direct comparison.
Whoever applied the signature, its presence suggests that the Leiden Collection painting was intended tobe sold as a Rembrandt. For a discussion of Rembrandt’s signatures from this period, see Josua Bruyn,“A Selection of Signatures, 1635–1642,” in Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 51–56.
28. For other versions that may have been produced around the same time, see discussion below, and for thefull list, see Versions.
29. There are no securely dated copies by Bol from the early 1640s, but it is not unlikely that he would havecontinued making copies, especially for the market, during his time in the workshop. See discussion in
David de Witt and Leonore van Sloten, “Ferdinand Bol: Rembrandt’s Disciple,” in Ferdinand Bol andGovert Flinck: Rembrandt’s Master Pupils, ed. Norbert Middelkoop (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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Rembrandthuis; Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum) (Zwolle, 2017), 42, 44–48.
30. These copies are no longer extant or have unknown whereabouts. The Corpus attributes copy no. 1(formerly Lord Margadale) to Ferdinand Bol. This painting may be identical with a copy by Bol after a“portrait of a rabbi” by Rembrandt that was in the collection of the Rotterdam collector Gerrit van der
Pot in 1788, and subsequently sold to the English art dealer Bryan in 1800. See E. Wiersum, “Hetonstaan van de verzameling schilderijen van Gerrit van der Pot van Groeneveld te Rotterdam,” Oud
Holland 48 (1931): 211; and Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642,
Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), 296. Michiel Roscam Abbing
suggested an attribution to Bol for the Leiden Collection painting in Rembrandt toont sijn konst:
Bijdragen over Rembrandt-documenten uit de periode 1648–1756 (Leiden, 1999), 158, 161. The
attribution to Bol was also suggested in personal correspondence with Otto Naumann.
31. This painting has been alternatively been dated between ca. 1640 and 1643. See Werner Sumowksi,
Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. 5, Nachträge, Ortsregister, Ikonographisches Register,
Bibliographie (Landau, 1994), no. 2,010; Paul Huys Janssen and Werner Sumowski, eds., The
Hoogsteder Exhibition of Rembrandt’s Academy (Exh. cat. The Hague, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder)(Zwolle, 1992), no. 3, 101–3.
32. The one significant difference is that Bol has included two large globes in the background of the room.
David de Witt and Leonore van Sloten have also noted that Bol’s handling of light in this period was“assertive and determined.” De Witt and Van Sloten, “Ferdinand Bol: Rembrandt’s Disciple,” inFerdinand Bol and Govert Flinck: Rembrandt’s Master Pupils, ed. Norbert Middelkoop (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum) (Zwolle, 2017), 49–53.
33. Bol likely established his own workshop in 1641, though his earliest independent work, Gideon’s
Sacrifice (Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht), dates from 1640. See Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol(1616–1680): Rembrandt’s Pupil (Doornspijk, 1982), 19; David de Witt and Leonore van Sloten,“Ferdinand Bol: Rembrandt’s Disciple,” in Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck: Rembrandt’s Master Pupils,ed. Norbert Middelkoop (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Museum) (Zwolle, 2017), 48–51.
34. See, for example, Angel Appearing to Elijah, ca. 1642 (The Leiden Collection, New York); Man with aBook, 1644 (The Leiden Collection, New York); Man with a Fur-Trimmed Hat, ca. 1646–48 (TheLeiden Collection, New York); as well as Portrait of an Old Woman, Possibly Elisabeth Bass
(1571–1649), ca. 1640–45 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); Jacob’s Dream, ca. 1642 (Gemäldegalerie,
Dresden); and Man in a Fancy Robe and a Tall Cap Strung with Pearls, ca. 1643 (Agnes Etherington Art
Centre, Kingston, Ontario).
35. The making of this copy by a mature artist, one who already had significant experience executing copies
after Rembrandt, makes the attribution of the Leiden Collection painting to other pupils or assistants inthis period unlikely. Among the other artists active in Rembrandt’s workshop in the early 1640s were
Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78) and Carel Fabritius (1622–54), but their styles are also quite
different from this work, and they cannot be considered in attribution discussions.
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36. The authors of the Corpus suggested that at least one copy emerged directly from Rembrandt’s
workshop. The Kingston Lacy copy, executed by a certain N. Wray or his workshop in Rome, remains
the earliest documented version. In 1659, the copy was in the collection of the British aristocrat Sir
Ralph Bankes (ca. 1631–77), where it is documented in his papers as “A Coppy of A Turks head from
Rainebrand/

The

Originallis

Cardinal

Mazarins

sister[’s]20[pounds].”

See

http://remdoc.huygens.knaw.nl/#/document/remdoc/e12825; Michiel Roscam Abbing, Rembrandt 2006,
vol. 2., New Rembrandt Documents (Leiden 2006), no. 54, 77–78. The versions in Dresden and Potsdam
have been dated to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries and are the most closely related to
the Leiden Collection painting in overall quality. The Dresden copy was acquired in 1725 for the Saxon
elector and king of Poland, August the Strong (1670–1733), and the panel in Potsdam belonged toFrederick the Great (1712–86) in 1764. My thanks to Uta Neidhardt at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meisterin Dresden and Alexandra Nina Bauer and Samuel Wittwer in Potsdam for sharing research about thesepaintings. For the copies discussed in the Corpus, see Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt
Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989),
294–96; and see Versions.
37. The interest in the painting in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries appears to have derived
largely from the prints made after the Chatsworth composition by William Pether. Copies after the
Chatsworth painting were already known in the nineteenth century (see Georg Rathgeber, Annalen derNiederländischen Malerei und Kupferstecherkunst. Von Rubens Abreise nach Italien bis Rembrandt’s Tod[Gotha, 1839], 67; 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[London, 1854], 3: 345–46; Georg Kaspar Nagler, Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon oder Nachrichten
von dem Leben und den Werken der Maler, Bildhauer, Baumeister, Kupferstecher, Lithographen,Formschneider, Zeichner, Medailleure, Elfenbeinarbeiter, etc., 3rd ed. [Leipzig, 1854], 14: 121; Wilhelmvon Bode, Studien zur Geschichte der Holländischen Malerei [Braunschweig, 1883], 415, 427, 580), andWilhelm von Bode remarked in 1883 what “a great reputation the painting must have had.” Eightversions after the Chatsworth painting are cited in the Corpus, though only four are documented indetail. Of these, the version listed in the Amalienstift, Dessau, could not be traced. Josua Bruyn et al., A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research
Project (The Hague, 1989), 296. I would like to thank Caroline Van Cauwenberge for her help in bothtracking down and researching the expanded list of versions (for the complete list, see Versions). My
thanks also to Tico Seifert for discussing the Chatsworth painting and its copies with me.
38. Letters to Mazarin in Paris from his agent in Rome, Elpidio Benedetti (ca. 1610–90), about his wish toacquire the painting date from 1660 and early 1661. See further discussion in note 25 and Michiel
Roscam Abbing, Rembrandt 2006, vol. 2, New Rembrandt Documents (Leiden, 2006), doc. 54, 77–78.
39. As described in the sales catalogue of Pierre Caulet d’Hauteville in 1774 (see Provenance). The Leiden
Collection painting is otherwise not documented in the king’s collection.
40. See Provenance.
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ProvenancePossibly Louis XV of France (1715–74); by whom given to Gérard Binet.
Gérard Binet (1712–80), baron of Marchais, Valet de Chambre for the Dauphin, Louis de France.
Pierre Caulet d’Hauteville (d. 1775), Paris, by 1765 (his sale, Joullain, Paris, 25 April 1774, no. 55, as
by Rembrandt, unsold).[1]Petrus-Fransciscus-Gisbertus van Schorel (1716–78), Lord of Wilryck, Mayor of Antwerp, Antwerp(his sale, Antwerp, 7 June 1774, no. 46, as by Rembrandt [to Schorel for 185 guilders]).
Jacques-Albert-Paul-Joseph Dormer (1736–76), Lord of Beaumistercourt and Beez, Antwerp (his sale,
Bincken, Antwerp, 27 May 1777, no. 132, as by Rembrandt [to Deroy for 68 guilders]).
Probably Harry Cuthbert Jeddere-Fisher (1885–1934), Dormansland, Surrey; and by descent (privatesale, Sotheby’s, New York, 2019).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2019.

Provenance Notes

1. Caulet d’Hauteville’s name is inscribed on the reverse of the panel.

Exhibition History
Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam, “Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: History Paintings from The
Leiden Collection,” 4 February–27 August 2023, no. 12 [lent by the present owner].

References
Dézallier d’Argenville, Antoine-Nicolas. Voyage pittoresque de Paris ou Indication de tout ce qu’il y a deplus beau dans cette grande Ville en Peinture, Sculpture, et Architecture. 4th ed. Paris, 1765, 254 (as byRembrandt).
Bruyn, Joshua, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 3, 1635–1642. Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project. The Hague, 1989, 296, copy no. 3.
Roscam Abbing, Michiel. Rembrandt toont sijn konst: Bijdragen over Rembrandt-documenten uit deperiode 1648–1756. Leiden, 1999, 158, 161 (as a seventeenth-century copy, possibly by Ferdinand Bol).
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., Christiaan Vogelaar, and Caroline van Cauwenberge. Rembrandt and His© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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Contemporaries: History Paintings from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Hermitage
Amsterdam. Zwolle, 2023, 62–65, no. 12. [Exhibition catalogue also published in Dutch.]

Versions
Versions[1]1. Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume (King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy), ca. 1639, oil on poplar or lime
wood panel with arched top, 102.8 x 78.8 cm, Collection of the Duke of Devonshire and Trustees of the
Chatsworth Settlement, Chatsworth, inv. no. 548.

2. Studio of Rembrandt, A King of the Old Testament, Possibly King Uzziah, 17th century, oil on panel,
100.3 x 80 cm, previously John Granville Morrison, 1st Baron Margadale.[2]3. After Rembrandt, A Man in Oriental Dress, 17th century (?), oil on canvas, 101.6 x 80 cm, previous sale,
Christie’s, Amsterdam, 9 November 1998, no. 23, as possibly by Govaert Flinck.

4. N. Wray (active 1650–60) (or workshop), after Rembrandt, Possibly King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy,ca. 1659, oil on canvas, 99.1 x 92.1 cm, Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset, inv. no. NT 1257105.

5. After Rembrandt, The Rabbi in the Temple, late 17th or early 18th century, oil on canvas, 90.5 x 73.5
cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, inv. no. 1572 A.

6. After Rembrandt, King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy, 18th century (?), oil on panel with arched top, 97 x
79.5 cm, Picture Gallery of Sanssouci, Potsdam, inv. no. GK I 10629.[3]7. After Rembrandt, Portrait of a Jewish Rabbi, n.d., oil on canvas, 102.87 x 78.74 cm, previously
Viscount Powerscourt, Enniskerry.[4]8. After Rembrandt, Portrait of a Man in Oriental Costume, 18th century (?), oil on canvas, 98 x 75 cm,
Musei Reali – Galleria Sabauda, Turin, inv. no. 594.

9. After Rembrandt, Portrait of a Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on canvas, 74 x 62 cm, Musei Reali –Galleria Sabauda, Turin, inv. no. 555.

10. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on canvas, 98.3 x 73.2 cm, previous sale, Ansorena,
Madrid, 20 April 2017, no. 519, as circle of Rembrandt.

11. Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (1712–74), after Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, 18th century,
oil on canvas, 105.5 x 79 cm, Regional Museum in Rzeszów, inv. no. MRA 2515.

12. Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (1712–74), after Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, 18th century,
oil on panel, 38.7 x 29 cm, previous sale Lempertz, Cologne, 18 March 2015, no. 17.

13. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, ca. 1729–36, oil on panel, 39.2 x 29.2 cm, Sinebrychoff Art
Museum, Helsinki, inv. no. A I 674.[5]14. After Rembrandt, An Old Man (Rabbi from Amsterdam?), n.d., oil on canvas, 94 x 86 cm, Ostfriesisches
Landesmuseum Emden, inv. no. OLM 162.
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15. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume (King Uzziah), n.d., oil on canvas, 114 x 85 cm, Museu
Nacional de Arte Antigua, Lisbon, inv. no. 574 Pint.

16. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on canvas, 85.7 x 72 cm, previous sale Christie’s,
London, 6 March 2012, no. 255.

17. After Rembrandt, Portrait of a Rabbi, n.d, oil on canvas, 104 x 80 cm, previous sale, Aachen, 14 March
1912, as by Ferdinand Bol.

18. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., medium and dimensions unknown, previously H. vanSewa, The Hague, as by Salomon Koninck.

19. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on panel, 62.5 x 45 cm, previously private
collection, Hungary.

20. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on panel, 37.5 x 32 cm or 27.5 x 22 cm, previously
Renate Rau, Lorch, Baden-Württemberg.

21. After Rembrandt, A Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., medium and dimensions unknown, previously
Kunsthandel D. Katz.

22. After Rembrandt, A Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., medium and dimensions unknown previously
Adelmo Lunghi, Rome.

23. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., medium and dimensions unknown, previously Dr.
Rademaker.

24. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on canvas, 71 x 55 cm, previous sale, Dorotheum,
Vienna, 20 March 1995, no. 291.

25. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on panel, 105 x 80 cm, previously R.E. Schibler.
26. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., medium and dimensions unknown, previously private
collection, Tharandt.

27. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, early 20th century, oil on canvas, 96 x 76, Jagiellonian
University Museum Collegium Maius, Kraków.

28. After Rembrandt, Portrait of King Uzziah, n.d., oil on canvas, 61.6 x 48.3 cm, previous sale, Freeman’s,
Philadelphia, 11 October 2012, no. 162.

29. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on canvas, 105 x 80 cm, current whereabouts
unknown.

30. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., medium and dimensions unknown, previously possibly
private collection, Copenhagen.

31. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Dress, n.d., oil on canvas, 97.4 x 72.4 cm, previous sale, Christie’s,
Amsterdam, 14 May 2003, no. 115.

32. After Rembrandt, Portrait of an Old Man, n.d., oil on panel, 44.5 x 32 cm, previous sale,
Kunstauktionhaus Schlosser Bamberg, Bamberg, 16 March 2013, no. 475.

33. After Rembrandt, King Uzziah, n.d., oil on canvas, 116 x 88 cm, previous sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 12© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Man in Oriental Costume (possibly the Old Testament Patriarch Dan)
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December 2011, no. 78.

34. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, oil on canvas, 49 x 60 cm, previously Mrs. A.E. Csorgo,
Ottawa.

35. After Rembrandt, Rabbi, n.d., oil on canvas, 38 x 30 cm, previous sale, Genève Enchères, Geneva, 21
September 2016, no. 434.

36. After Rembrandt, A Rabbi (King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy), ca. 1764–85, oil on copper, 24 x 19 cm,
Museum of Gloucester, inv. no. GLRCM: Art01984.

37. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., medium unknown, 90 x 70 cm, previously Olof
Kullberg-Mayer, Katrineholm, Sweden.

38. After Rembrandt, King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy, n.d., oil on canvas, 99.5 x 73 cm, previous sale,
Bloomsbury Auctions, Rome, 29 November 2011, no. 72.

39. After Rembrandt, The Rabbi Ephraim Bueno, n.d., oil on canvas, 102.5 x 81 cm, previous sale, François
Tronchin des Délices, Paris, 25 March 1801, no. 161, as by Rembrandt.[6]40. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on canvas, 66 x 49 cm, previously Dr. Manlio
Vignola, Napels, Italy.

41. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on canvas, 60 x 43 cm, previously Dr. Alberto
Bulleri, Ponsacco, Italy.

42. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., dimensions and medium unknown, current
whereabouts unknown.[7]43. After Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume, n.d., dimensions and medium unknown, previously private
collection, probably Switzerland.

44. After Rembrandt, Man in an Oriental Costume, n.d., oil on canvas, 71 x 60 cm, previous sale, Paul
Brandt, Amsterdam, 5–6 March 1957, no. 249, as by Samuel van Hoogstraten.

Prints
1. William Pether (1731–1819), after Rembrandt, A Jew Rabbi, 1764, mezzotint, 459 x 357 mm, British
Museum, London, inv. no. 1868,0822.2026.

2. William Pether (1731–1819), after Rembrandt, A Jew Rabbi, 1777, mezzotint, 453 x 355 mm, British
Museum, London, inv. no. 1861,1109.264.

3. William Pether (1731–1819), after Rembrandt, A Jew Rabbi, 1778, mezzotint, 318 x 251 mm, British
Museum, London, inv. no. 1902,1011.5197.

4. Charles Spooner (1720–67), after Rembrandt, A Jew Rabbi, 1764–67, mezzotint, 386 x 290 mm, The
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, inv. no. P.5808-R.

5. William Strange (active 1799–1852), after Rembrandt, A Jew Rabbi, 1742–60s, mezzotint, 354 x 253
mm, British Museum, London, inv. no. 1902,1011.5197.
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6. Richard Purcell (1736–66), after Rembrandt, A Jew-Rabbi, 18th century, mezzotint, 355 x 251 mm, The
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, inv. no. P.5803-R.

7. James McArdell (1729–65), after Rembrandt, n.d., mezzotint, dimensions unknown.
8. Richard Girling (1799–1869), after Rembrandt, Portrait of a Rabbi, 1814–69, etching, 286 x 210 mm,
British Museum, London, inv. no. 1902,0514.735.

Versions Notes

1. Whenever possible, a likely date for the version has been provided in the list below. In all other cases,
there are too many uncertainties around the dating of the work to assign it a suggested date.
2. As copy no. 1 in Joshua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), 296. This version is not identical with thePowerscourt version (no. 7 on this list), which the authors of the Corpus suggested; the two paintings areon different supports.
3. As copy no. 2 in Joshua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), 296.
4. This version is mentioned under copy no. 1 in Joshua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
3, 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), 296, but should
not be confused with the Margadale version, executed on panel (no. 2 on this list).
5. Dendrochronology performed by Peter Klein provides a date for the panel between 1729 and 1736. We
would like to thank Ira Westergard at the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, forkindly sharing research about this painting.
6. As copy no. 4 in Joshua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), 296.
7. Photograph in the Photo Archives, RKD, The Hague.

Technical Summary
The support consists of three oak planks of vertical grain, which have been adhered using butt joints. All
planks originate from the Polish/Baltic region. Based on the number of identified growth rings, a creation
date for the painting is plausible from as early as 1637.[1] An uneven bevel extends along the entire base of
the panel on the reverse. In addition, the joint between the proper left and central planks is uneven andcontains a handful of splits and cracks (one of which has been reinforced with a wooden dovetail insert). An
incised line is present along the top edge, spanning the proper left and central planks. This line appears to beoriginal to the construction of the panel and may indicate where the panel makers originally planned to cut
the panel when it was being prepared as a painting substrate.
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The panel appears to have been prepared with two priming layers. The high contrast observed in the Xradiography indicates that the priming layer(s) are not particularly rich in lead, though lead white is present
throughout the painting.[2] This is consistent with findings from other panel paintings associated with
Rembrandt and his workshop dating from this period, which contain a lower ground layer rich in chalkand/or earth pigments.[3] Preliminary stages of the composition were executed using successive applicationsof thinned, warm-colored paint rich in earth pigments.[4] Examination of the sitter’s face using infrared
photography indicates a relatively restrained use of carbon black except for certain areas of shadow, such as
the pupils and contours of the nose and mouth.[5] The artist relied heavily on warm-colored paint as a
midtone, leaving some passages with exposed ground and later adding sculpted highlights rich in lead white.
Once a significant portion of the background and the clothing had been completed, adjustments were madeto the sitter’s beard, including thin strokes of gray paint applied on top of the dark robe. Additional highlights
were added by scraping the nearly dry paint with a pointed instrument. Final details were added by using
impastoed white paint on the turban, the sleeves, and the jewels. These areas are clearly discernible in the Xradiograph and demonstrate that the painting was executed with a high level of skill and confidence.
No significant modifications to the composition are apparent in the X-radiograph or infrared images. Minorchanges include a slight repositioning of the sitter’s proper right eye, the contours of the white-collaredruffled shirt, and contours of the turban, the white sleeves, and the outer edges of the dark fur-trimmed robe.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint near the lower-left corner. Close comparison of the infraredand ultraviolet light images reveals some differences in both the signature and the date. Sections of thelettering appear substantially darker in the infrared photograph and the infrared reflectogram, indicating thatthey were reinforced using a dark paint slightly richer in carbon black.
Overall the painting is in good condition.[6] Examination using ultraviolet light reveals areas of retouchingalong the outer edges of the picture; minor traces are also present on the figure as well as the signature anddate (as described above).[7] Although there are at least two uneven layers of varnish present, the appearanceof the picture is not significantly compromised.
– Kristin deGhetaldi, 2020

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Peter Klein performed dendrochronology on the panel in 2018. His final conclusion regarding the fellingand creation dates reads as follows: “Regarding the sapwood statistic of Eastern Europe an earliest
felling date can be derived for the year 1629, more plausible is a felling date between 1633 . . .1635 . . .
1639. With a minimum of 2 years for seasoning an earliest creation of the painting is possible from1631 upwards. Under the assumption of a median of 15 sapwood rings and 2 years for seasoning acreation is plausible from 1637 upwards.”
2. During X-radiography, a surprisingly low kV setting was required to obtain acceptable images from thepanel, particularly given the relative thickness of the wooden support. This seems to indicate that the© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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ground does not possess a significant amount of lead white.
3. See Karin Groen, “Grounds in Rembrandt’s Workshop and in Paintings by His Contemporaries,” inPaintings in the Laboratory: Scientific Examination for Art History and Conservation, ed. Esther van
Duijn (London, 2014), 27.
4. These findings are supported by XRF scans performed by Sotheby’s Department of Scientific Researchin 2019, and pigment analysis performed by Libby Sheldon in 2018. Other pigments identified throughanalysis include lead white, lead-tin yellow, and carbon black (using X-ray fluorescence and microscopic
examination of dispersed pigment samples). This analysis also suggests the presence of red and/or
yellow lake pigments. The Leiden Collection wishes to thank Julia Korner, as well as James Martin at
Sotheby’s for sharing the respective results of their technical research.
5. It is also possible that the sitter’s pupils were slightly reinforced during a previous restoration campaign
as they appear considerably dark in the IR photograph.
6. Julia Korner’s Conservation Studios in London performed conservation on the painting in 2018–2019, at
which time a new period frame was also designed and constructed. We express thanks to Julia Kornerfor kindly sharing this information and the results of her research with The Leiden Collection.
7. Long-wave ultraviolet light covers a range of approximately 315–400 nm.

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