Head of a Girlca. 1645

Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)oil on panel
20.8 x 17.4 cm
RR-112Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Van Tuinen, Ilona and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. "Head of a Girl." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited
by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
This page is available on the site's Archive. PDF of every version of this page is available on the Archive,
and the Archive is managed by a permanent URL. Archival copies will never be deleted. New versions areadded only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Head of a Girl
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With a tender expression accentuated by her tilted head and slightly

Comparative Figuresparted lips, the girl in this bust-length image gazes downward to the left.
Strong light falling from the upper left illuminates her face and the broad,cream-colored kerchief draped loosely around her neck, while a subtle,
reflected light models the shaded areas of her cheek and chin. Executed inboth thick impastos and thin, translucent paints, this rapidly executed oil
study has a compelling presence that belies its small scale.
Wilhelm von Bode was the first scholar in the first half of the twentiethcentury to publish this engaging head study as Rembrandt’s.[1] In 1948,
Jacob Rosenberg argued that this sketch was Rembrandt’s preliminary
study for Mary in his Holy Family, 1645, in the State Hermitage Museum in
St. Petersburg (fig 1). Indeed, the position of Mary’s head, her expression,and the character of the direct and indirect light illuminating her face are

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Holy
Family, 1645, oil on canvas,
116.4 x 96.4 cm, The State
Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, inv. 741

almost identical to that of the young girl in the oil study (fig 2). Since the1960s, however, most art historians have argued that this oil study is afreely executed copy of Mary in Holy Family by a member of Rembrandt’s
workshop and not Rembrandt’s preliminary study for that figure.[2] The
painting has been associated with a number of Rembrandt’s students,
including Carel Fabritius (1622–54), Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78),
and Nicolaes Maes (1634–93), but none of these proposed attributions
has proved to be compelling.[3] As a consequence, the identification of theartist responsible for this engaging oil study remains an enigma.[4]The question of whether or not this bust is Rembrandt’s preliminary study
or a copy by a workshop assistant relates to a larger problem within
Rembrandt scholarship. As Ernst van de Wetering has demonstrated,

Fig 2. Detail, Rembrandt van
Rijn, Holy Family, 1645, oil oncanvas, 116.4 x 96.4 cm, The
State Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, inv. 741

Rembrandt often made preparatory studies of figures for his paintings towork out patterns of light and shade.[5] In these studies he was particularlyinterested in rendering light that had been reflected into shadowed areasof the face. Michiel Franken has argued, however, that Rembrandt also
encouraged his students to make partial copies after his compositions,and to alter these copies so that they could pass as tronies in their own
right.[6] It is not always easy to tell the difference between these two typesof oil sketches, and debates about their attributions are some of the mostcomplicated issues in Rembrandt studies.
Careful comparisons of the Leiden Collection’s Head of a Girl and theFig 3. X-radiograph of Head of aGirl, RR-112

figure of Mary in Holy Family support Rosenberg’s conclusion that this© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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sketch is a preliminary study for the Hermitage painting and not a copy
after it. For example, the strokes of white paint evident above the girl’shead, which are also visible in the X-radiograph (fig 3), indicate that theartist initially provided her with a small bonnet rather than the larger
headdress worn by Mary in the final composition. The X-radiograph also
reveals changes in the position of the white cloth to the left of the girl’sface, an unlikely occurrence should the Leiden Collection painting be a
copy. Other differences exist between the oil sketch and the final
composition, including the girl’s hairstyle, which is not parted in the middle
as is the case with Mary. Mary leans more forward than does the girl in theoil study, a difference in pose that is evident in the position of Mary’s rightshoulder, which is higher than that of the girl in the oil sketch. Also
revealing is the shape of the young girl’s neckline. In the HermitageFig 4. Rembrandt van Rijn, Headof Christ, ca. 1648, oil on panel,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, inv.
811C, © Foto: Gemäldegalerie
der Staatlichen Museen zu
Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
Fotograf/in: Volker-H. Schneider

painting Mary wears a straight-edged bodice, but a visible pentimento inthis area reveals that her neckline was V-shaped, exactly as in the oil
sketch from the Leiden Collection.[7] Finally, the handling of paint, which
includes both impastos and thin areas in the shadows that reveal theunderlying ocher ground layer, is consistent with Rembrandt’s manner and
not with a copy. The subtle nuances of reflected light in the shaded portionof the girl’s face are also comparable to those found on Rembrandt’s otheroil studies.[8]Nowhere in Rembrandt’s oeuvre does one find so many correlations
between an oil sketch and the initial appearance of one of Rembrandt’s
compositions as in this instance. Indeed, all of the other the oil sketches
that Franken describes as workshop copies are based on one of themaster’s completed compositions, not on an initial stage in the creative
process. Franken argues that the Leiden Collection oil study was made bya copyist who adapted his image so that it could function as “a ‘tronie’ in
its own right,” but this conclusion seems improbable since the oil study soclosely reflects Holy Family’s underlying design. Van den Boogert and Van
de Wetering, recognizing this fact, maintain that Head of a Girl was
executed by a member of Rembrandt’s workshop before Rembrandt had
worked out his final composition for the Hermitage painting.[9] As evidence
to support their theory, they contend that an infrared reflectogram of thegirl’s head reveals a fairly detailed underdrawing in black chalk or
charcoal, a technique that Rembrandt is not known to have used.[10] Theirreading of the reflectogram, however, mistakenly interpreted the blacklines seen in the image as underdrawings rather than strokes of carbon© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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containing paint used to model the girl’s features.[11] After one discounts
this faulty interpretation of the reflectogram, there are, in fact, nocompositional or technical reasons for questioning the attribution of this oil
sketch to Rembrandt.
A fundamental question when considering the attribution is whether thework is stylistically consistent with Rembrandt’s oil studies from themid-1640s. This issue is particularly important because no Rembrandt
scholar has attributed the painting to the master since 1966, when Bauchdeemed the painting to be a partial copy after Rembrandt’s Holy Family. In
this respect, the historical situation related to Head of a Girl parallels thatof a number of other oil sketches that have been considered to be partial
copies by pupils, but that actually may have been preliminary studies
Rembrandt made for history paintings. Van de Wetering has identified anumber of these, mostly expressive head studies that demonstrate a quick
and fluid touch, often boldly executed with thick impastos.[12] Van deWetering, however, has not reattributed Head of a Girl to Rembrandt, andhe, like other recent Rembrandt scholars, considers it to be a copy by amember of Rembrandt’s workshop.[13]The reason that scholars have resisted attributing this oil sketch toRembrandt may be that the young woman is more carefully rendered thanthe preliminary oil sketches generally associated with Rembrandt’s hand,all of which are boldly and expressively brushed. Indeed, Head of a Girl
has the character of a figure study rather than a quick compositionalsketch. In this respect it resembles the various head studies of Christ that
Rembrandt and his workshop painted from a young Jewish model in thelate 1640s, none of which were actually preliminary studies for paintings. A
particularly close comparison to Head of a Girl is the Head of Christ from
Berlin (fig 4). Both young models are posed looking down and to the right,
their averted gazes evoking a sense of mystery and inward reflection.[14]Their features are similarly rendered, as is the application of paint. In each
instance the face has been worked up from a brown monochrome sketch,
which has been left exposed in the temple and in the shaded portions of
the nose and proper right eye socket. The foreheads and cheekbones ofboth figures have been comparably enlivened with freely brushed
impastos.
Thus, in addition to its high quality, the stylistic, compositional, and© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Head of a Girl
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technical character of this compelling head study warrant defending its
attribution to Rembrandt. It is probable that the master executed thispainting around 1645 as a preparatory study for the figure of Mary inHoly
Family.[15]- Ilona van Tuinen and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. Wilhelm von Bode, assisted by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of
Rembrandt, 8 vols. (Paris, 1897–1906), 5:29, 156, no. 373, dated the painting to “about
1650.” The attribution to Rembrandt was subsequently upheld by Wilhelm Valentiner andCornelis Hofstede de Groot. See Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Des Meisters Gemälde(Stuttgart and Berlin, 1909), 406, 562, 576 (where he mentioned a faint date of 1653 on thepanel, albeit “undeutlich und nich ganz zweifellos” a date which can no longer be detected or
has since disappeared, and which does not appear to have been original); Cornelis Hofstede
de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of theSeventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith , 8 vols. (London, 1907–27),translated

from

Beschreibendes

undkritisches

Verzeichnis

der

Werke

der

hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen andParis, 1907–28), 6:251, no. 495. In 1935, however, Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: Gemälde(Vienna, 1935), no. 375, expressed some doubts about the Rembrandt attribution.
2. Jakob Rosenberg, Rembrandt (Cambridge, Mass., 1948), 51, 122, fig. 165 (rev. ed.
[London, 1964], 91, 196, 198, fig. 163).
3. In 1966 Kurt Bauch, Rembrandt: Gemälde (Berlin, 1966), 48, no. 375, considered thepainting to be a partial copy after Holy Family executed in the “manner of Fabritius,” while
Werner Sumowski, “Zu einem Gemälde von Carel Fabritius,” Pantheon 26, no. 4 (1968):
282–83, firmly attributed it to Carel Fabritius. Subsequently, Sumowski reassessed theattribution and gave it to Nicolaes Maes before changing his mind and identifying it as a
work

by

Samuelvan

Hoogstraten.

See

WernerSumowski,GemäldederRembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau, 1983–[1994]), 3:2008, under no. 1322, as by Nicolaes
Maes; 6:3627, under no. 1322, as by Samuel van Hoogstraten. Bob van den Boogert,“Rembrandt Werkstatt: Kopf eines Mädchens (Teilkopie nach Die Heilige Familie mit den
Engeln),” in Rembrandt: Genie auf der Suche , ed. Ernst van de Wetering and Jan Kelch(Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin) (Berlin, 2006) 334–35, no. 47, argued that the work was a copy of an
earlier stage of the Holy Family, possibly by Van Hoogstraten. In 2000, Léon Krempel listed
this oil sketch among the doubtful attributions to Nicolaes Maes in his monograph on theartist, but, in 2010, he described it as “attributed to” Maes. See León Krempel,Nicolaes
Maes (1634–1693): Studien zu den datierten Gemälden (Petersberg, 2000), 334–35, no. B
12, fig. 356; Chris Dercon and Léon Krempel et al., eds.,Tronies: Marlene Dumas and the
Old Masters (Exh. cat. Munich, Haus der Kunst) (Düsseldorf, 2010), 36, 108. On 10
November 2010 Krempel sent an email to the Leiden Collection indicating that he attributed
the painting to Maes (curatorial files, The Leiden Collection, New York).
4. Neither Horst Gerson, in Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Paintings, revised by Horst Gerson (London, 1969), 541, 579, no. 375; nor Ernst van deWetering, “Rembrandt: The Holy Family, 1645,” in Stichting Foundation Rembrandt
Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol. 5, Small-Scale History Paintings,
ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2011), 371–78, no. V 4, copy 1, attribute the painting
to a specific artist from Rembrandt’s workshop.
5. Ernst van de Wetering, “Rembrandt’s Oil Studies: New Light on an Old Problem,” inRembrandt: Quest of a Genius , ed. Bob van den Boogert (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum
Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Zwolle, 2006),
179–207.
6. Michiel Franken, “Learning by Imitation: Copying Paintings in Rembrandt’s Workshop,” inRembrandt: Quest of a Genius , ed. Bob van den Boogert (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum
Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Zwolle, 2006),
153–77, particularly 169–70. See also Michiel Franken, “Lernen durch Nachahmung: Űberdas Kopieren von Gemälden in Rembrandts Werkstatt,” in Rembrandt: Genie auf derSuche, ed. Ernst van de Wetering and Jan Kelch (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het
Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Berlin, 2006,),
145–63, particularly 156–57.
7. The presence of the V-shaped neckline confirms that the New York painting was executedaround 1645, the date of the Hermitage painting, which makes an attribution to Nicolaes
Maes, who studied with Rembrandt between 1649 and 1653, implausible.
8. See Ernst van de Wetering, “Rembrandt’s Oil Studies: New Light on an Old Problem,” inRembrandt: Quest of a Genius , ed. Bob van den Boogert (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum
Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Zwolle, 2006),
179–207.
9. Bob van den Boogert, “Rembrandt Werkstatt: Kopf eines Mädchens (Teilkopie nach Die
Heilige Familie mit den Engeln ),” in Rembrandt: Genie auf der Suche , ed. Ernst van deWetering and Jan Kelch (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin,
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Berlin, 2006,) 334–35, no. 47. Ernst van deWetering et al., “Rembrandt: The Holy Family, 1645,” in Stichting Foundation Rembrandt
Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol. 5, Small-Scale History Paintings,
ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2011), 371–78, no. V 4, copy 1.
10. Bob van den Boogert, “Rembrandt Werkstatt: Kopf eines Mädchens (Teilkopie nach Die
Heilige Familie mit den Engeln ),” in Rembrandt: Genie auf der Suche , ed. Ernst van deWetering and Jan Kelch (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin,
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Berlin, 2006,) 334–35, no. 47; Ernst van deWetering, “Rembrandt: The Holy Family, 1645,” in Stichting Foundation Rembrandt
Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol. 5, Small-Scale History Paintings,
ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2011), 371–78, no. V 4, copy 1, fig. 8. In this respect,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Head of a Girl
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their assessments follow the arguments of Michiel Franken, “Lernen durch Nachahmung:Űber das Kopieren von Gemälden in Rembrandts Werkstatt,” inRembrandt: Genie auf derSuche, ed. Ernst van de Wetering and Jan Kelch (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het
Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Berlin, 2006),
145–63, particularly 156–57.
11. See Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt: The Painter at Work (Amsterdam, 2000), 23–32,
for a discussion of Rembrandt’s use of a preliminary monochrome modeling, often with awatery medium. We are grateful to Michiel Franken for relating his account of the discussionof underdrawing in Rembrandt’s oeuvre at the technical conference at the National Gallery in
London in November 2014 in conjunction with the exhibition Rembrandt: The Late Works.
12. See Ernst van de Wetering, “Rembrandt’s Oil Studies: New Light on an Old Problem,” inRembrandt: Quest of a Genius , ed. Bob van den Boogert (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum
Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Zwolle, 2006),
179–207, particularly 196–207. In this article, Van de Wetering reattributes a number of oil
sketches to Rembrandt, including Weeping Woman in the Detroit Institute of Arts, a workthat recent scholars have argued was a partial copy by a member of the workshop after the
master’s Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, 1644, in the National Gallery, London.
13. Ernst van de Wetering et al., “Rembrandt: The Holy Family, 1645,” in Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 5, Small-Scale History
Paintings, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2011), 371–78, no. V 4, copy 1.
14. See Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus , ed. Lloyd DeWitt, Blaise Ducos, and George S.
Keyes (Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit, Detroit
Institute of Arts) (Philadelphia, 2011), 62–63, cat. 35.
15. The results of dendrochronological analysis of this panel have not proved particularly helpful
in dating the painting. According to Peter Klein, in a 2000 report made for Salomon Lilian, B.
V., copy on file at the Leiden Collection, New York, the youngest year ring of the panel dates
to 1613 and the panel comes from the same tree as Rembrandt’s Old Man in Military
Costume (ca. 1630–31, oil on panel, 66 x 55.9 cm, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, inv.
78.PB.246) and Supper at Emmaus (private collection). Ian Tyers, in a report dated
November 2010, copy on file at the Leiden Collection, New York, states that the youngest
year ring of the panel dates as early as 1567.

Provenance
Sir Charles A. Turner, London, by 1898, as by Rembrandt.
Paul von Schwabach (1876–1938), Berlin, by 1909, as by Rembrandt.
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Dünsing Collection, Boizenburg, by 1948 [Frederick Mont, New York, 1950], as byRembrandt.
Private collection, United States, by 1969 (Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 28 January 1999, no.
236, as by Nicolaes Maes [Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam]).
Michiel and Debbie Zwetsloot, Scotland, by 2007, as by Nicolaes Maes.
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007, as attributed to Nicolaes Maes or
Samuel van Hoogstraten.

Exhibition History
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, “Rembrandt Schilderijen Bijeengebracht ter Gelegenheid
van de Inhuldiging van Hare Majesteit Koningin Wilhelmina,” 8 September–31 October
1898, no. 82, as by Rembrandt [lent by Sir Charles A. Turner].
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, “Exhibition of Pictures by Dutch Masters of theSeventeenth Century,” 1900, no. 48, as by Rembrandt [lent by Sir Charles A. Turner].
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, “Dutch Exhibition,” 30 March–10 May 1904, no. 156, as byRembrandt [lent by Sir Charles A. Turner].
Amsterdam, Rembrandt House Museum, “Rembrandt, Quest of a Genius,” 1 April–2 July
2006; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 4 August–5 November 2006, no.
47, as by workshop of Rembrandt [lent by a private collection].
Munich, Haus der Kunst, “Tronies: Marlene Dumas and the Old Masters,” 29 October2010–6 February 2011, as attributed to Nicolaes Maes [lent by the present owner].
Washington, D.C., The National Gallery, on loan with the permanent collection, 19 October
2016–2 February, 2017, as by Rembrandt van Rijn [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,”
22 February–22 May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Rembrandt Schilderijen Bijeengebracht ter Gelegenheid van de Inhuldiging van Hare
Majesteit Koningin Wilhelmina. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam, 1898,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Head of a Girl
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no. 82.
Exhibition of Pictures of Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century , with an introduction by
Walter Armstrong. Exh. cat. London, Burlington Fine Arts Club. London, 1900, 33, no. 48.
Von Bode, Wilhelm, assisted by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. The Complete Work of
Rembrandt. 8 vols. Paris, 1897–1906, 5:29, 156, no. 373.
Catalogue of the Whitechapel Art Gallery Dutch Exhibition March 30th to May 10th 1904 .
Exh. cat. London, Whitechapel Art Gallery. London, 1904, 22, no. 156.
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Rembrandt: Des Meisters Gemälde. Stuttgart and Berlin, 1909, 406,
562, 576, as dated 1653.
Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813–1912. 5 vols. London, 1913–15,
4:2144, no. 156.
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 . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27, 6:251, no. 495. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts.
10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Bredius, Abraham, ed. The Paintings of Rembrandt. 2 vols. New York, 1942, no. 375, as of
doubtful attribution to Rembrandt.
Rosenberg, Jakob. Rembrandt. Cambridge, Mass., 1948, 51, 122, no. 165 (rev. ed.,London, 1964, 91, 196, 198, no. 163).
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt: Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, 48, no. 375, as in the style of Carel
Fabritius and formerly dated 1653.
Sumowski, Werner. “Zu einem Gemälde von Carel Fabritius.” Pantheon 26 (1968, no. 4):
282–83, as by Carel Fabritius.
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings . Revised by Horst
Gerson. London, 1969, 541, 579, no. 375, as workshop of Rembrandt and formerly signed“1654” [sic].
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau, 1983–[1994]),
3:2008, under no. 1322, as by Nicolaes Maes; 6:3627, under no. 1322, as by Samuel van
Hoogstraten.
Van Thiel, Pieter. “De Rembrandt-tentoonstelling van 1898.” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum
40 (1992): 86, no. 82.
Krempel, León. Nicolaes Maes (1634–1693): Studien zu den datierten Gemälden .
Petersberg, 2000, 334–35, no. B 12, no. 356, as possibly by Nicolaes Maes.
Van den Boogert, Bob. “Rembrandt Werkstatt: Kopf eines Mädchens (Teilkopie nach Die
Heilige Familie mit den Engeln ).” In Rembrandt: Genie auf der Suche . Edited by Ernst van
de Wetering and Jan Kelch. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Head of a Girl
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Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Cologne, 2006, 334–35, no. 47, as workshop
of Rembrandt, possibly by Samuel van Hoogstraten.
Franken, Michiel. “Learning by Imitation: Copying Paintings in Rembrandt’s Workshop.” In
Rembrandt: Quest of a Genius . Edited by Bob van den Boogert. Exh. cat. Amsterdam,
Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Zwolle,
2006, 169–70, as school of Rembrandt.
Liedtke, Walter. “Young Woman with a Red Necklace.” Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. 2 vols. New York, 2:749–53, no. 170, n. 3, as an uncertain attribution.
Van de Wetering, Ernst. “Rembrandt: The Holy Family, 1645.” In Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings.

Vol. 5. Small-Scale

History Paintings. Edited by Ernst van de Wetering. Dordrecht, 2011, 371–78, no. V 4, no. 6[“copy 1”], as workshop of Rembrandt.
Dumas, Marlene, Dercon, Chriss and Krempel, Léon. Tronies: Marlene Dumas and the Old
Masters. Exh. cat. Munich, Haus der Kunst. Düsseldorf, 2010, 36, 108, as attributed to
Nicolaes Maes.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular, wedge-shaped, eastern Baltic oak
derived from a tree felled after 1575, has bevels along all but the left side.[1] The upper edge has
a jagged cut and may have been trimmed slightly. The unthinned and uncradled panel has two
handwritten inscriptions and an old paper label, but no hand or machine toolmarks, wax seals,
stencils, import stamps or panel maker’s marks.
A light-colored, radio-opaque ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a browntransparent glaze. The paint has been applied thinly though the background and in a thick pastewith low rounded brushmarkings through the figure’s hair, face, and neck. A gap between the
background paint and flesh tones along the figure’s proper left shoulder and entire head allows ahalo of the transparent brown glaze to remain visible.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at
780–1000 nanometers.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in agood state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. The characterization of the wood is based on Ian Tyers’s 2010 dendrochronology report.
The panel underwent dendrochronological analysis by Peter Klein in 2000.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection