© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress
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Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental
Dressca. 1631

Isaac de Jouderville(Leiden ca. 1612 – 1648 Amsterdam)

70.8 x 50.5 cm

oil on panel
false signature and date in dark paint, upper left
corner: “Rembrandt ft. 1641”
IJ-100How To Cite
Surh, Dominique. "Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited byArthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress
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Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress is a fascinating workshop copy byComparative Figures

Isaac de Jouderville, executed toward the end of his apprenticeship withRembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) from 1629 to 1631.[1] Based on
Rembrandt’s own full-length self-portrait, signed and dated 1631 in thePetit Palais in Paris (fig 1), Jouderville’s larger panel differs from its
prototype in its cooler tonalities, more exaggerated chiaroscuro, andcrisper silhouette. The most obvious difference between the two paintings,
however, is that Jouderville’s version does not depict the large dog in theforeground of Rembrandt’s painting. Rembrandt added the curly, longhaired poodle at a later date, probably in 1633.[2]As in Rembrandt’s original, Jouderville has portrayed the artist gazing at
the viewer as he stands in contrapposto, with one hand resting on a caneand the other held akimbo. His fanciful costume includes a turban with aFig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, TheArtist in Oriental Costume, with aPoodle at His Feet, 1631, oil onpanel, 66.5 x 52 cm, Musée duPetit Palais, Paris, no. 925

feathered aigrette, a velvet cloak closed at one shoulder with buttons, anda short silk tunic with golden brocade and fringe, tied by a sash at thewaist.[3] The fascination with exotic dress is evident in other works byRembrandt from this period, as in Man in Oriental Costume (“The NobleSlav”), 1632, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Daniel and Cyrus
before the Idol Bel, 1633, in the J. Paul Getty Museum.[4] Rembrandt,
however, portrayed himself in oriental dress only on this one occasion.[5]For most of its recorded history, Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dresswas considered to have been painted by the master. This attribution wasbased largely on its Rembrandtesque style and subject matter; the“signature” and date at the upper left—“Rembrandt ft. 1641”—wereapparently added in the nineteenth century.[6] In 1983, Ernst van deWetering proposed that Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress wasFig 2. Isaac Jouderville, Bust of aYoung Man, ca. 1631–35, oil onpanel, 48 x 37 cm, National
Gallery of Ireland, Dublin,NGI.433

painted by an apprentice in Rembrandt’s workshop and suggested
Jouderville as the most likely candidate.[7] Van de Wetering’s proposal isconvincing, for Jouderville’s Bust of a Young Man from the early 1630s in
the National Gallery of Ireland, one of his few signed paintings, shares anumber of stylistic features with the present work (fig 2). The overly
emphasized highlights of the richly appointed fabric, the frizzy hair, and thethin contour of light around the figure leave little doubt that these twopaintings are by the same hand.
The reason for Rembrandt’s choice to portray himself in exotic costume isdifficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, it is significant that Rembrandt felt theFig 3. Isaac Jouderville, Man in© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress
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composition

wasworthyofbeing

replicatedbyaworkshop

apprentice.[9] Because Rembrandt and Jouderville were in both Leiden

Oriental Costume, ca. 1631–35,
oil on panel, 66 x 50 cm, private
collection

and Amsterdam in 1631, it is also unclear in which city the prototype andthis copy originated. In the summer of 1631, Rembrandt began hisbusiness arrangement with the Amsterdam dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh,
and he received a number of portrait commissions requiring his presencein Amsterdam.[10] Scholars have suggested that Jouderville may haveaccompanied Rembrandt to Amsterdam as an assistant in Uylenburgh’sworkshop, since the last payment receipt pertaining to Jouderville’sapprenticeship with Rembrandt is dated 19 November 1631.[11]Jouderville’s Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress is a relatively rareexample of the type of didactic exercises that must have been an integral
part of Rembrandt’s workshop practice.[12] We know that making painted
copies after Rembrandt’s work, both as an exercise in imitation and asemulation of the master’s style, was an important part of Rembrandt’s
method of instruction. Nevertheless, very few direct copies after hispaintings, such as this one, survive.[13] Jouderville was more likely to makevariants of Rembrandt’s compositions. His Man in Oriental Costume (fig3), for example, is loosely based on Rembrandt’s self-portrait in Paris(fig1). A painting convincingly attributed to Jouderville, Bust of a Young
Woman in Chapel Hill (RR-104, fig. 3), is similarly derived from one ofRembrandt’s paintings from the early 1630s, Portrait of a Girl Wearing aGold-Trimmed Cloak, in the present collection (RR-104).[14] Jouderville
was also able to adapt pictorial elements in Rembrandt’s paintings tocreate his own independent works, as in his Minerva in Her Study inDenver, which draws freely on Rembrandt’s Old Woman Reading in theRijksmuseum, Amsterdam.[15]X-radiographs of Rembrandt’s Paris self-portrait have revealed that themaster made a number of changes to this work. Initially he shortened thelength of his legs and painted his feet anew, but then he added the poodle,
which covers his feet.[16] Because of the close correspondence between
the longer legs in Rembrandt’s original and those in Jouderville’s copy, theRembrandt Research Project concluded that Jouderville’s variant mustrepresent the original appearance of Rembrandt’s painting. Thus, aside
from its own intrinsic qualities, this portrait is a fascinating document ofRembrandt’s only known effort to paint a full-length self-portrait.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress
Page 5 of 11-Dominique Surh

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress
Page 6 of 11Endnotes
1. For a discussion of the sources documenting Jouderville’s apprenticeship with Rembrandt,
see the biography of the artist by Piet Bakker.
2. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , 6vols., ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and London, 1982–2014), 1:374–82; 2:840.
3. Marieke de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings(Amsterdam, 2006), 260–61, notes the Turkish costume is also found in three otherpaintings by Rembrandt and was depicted by the Italians as well.
4. Walter Liedtke, “Man in Oriental Costume,” in Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museumof Art, 2:554–67, no. 142.
5. On Rembrandt’s self-fashioning, see Marieke de Winkel, “Rembrandt’s Clothes: Dress andMeaning in His Self-Portraits,” in Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, 6 vols., ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, andLondon, 1982–2014), 4:45–87. For the depiction of exotic Turkish dress in Rembrandt’spaintings, see also Marieke de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning inRembrandt’s Paintings (Amsterdam, 2006), 260–61; and Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings,
1:380.
6. The earliest mention of the painting, in the Le Rough collection sale in Paris, 27 April 1818,
no. 46, describes the work in detail yet makes no mention of a signature at the upper left,
suggesting that it was added later.
7. Ernst van de Wetering, “Isaac Jouderville, a Pupil of Rembrandt,” in Albert Blankert et al.,The Impact of Genius: Rembrandt, His Pupils and Followers in the Seventeenth Century(Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Waterman Gallery; Groningen, Groninger Museum) (Amsterdam,1983), 66.
8. Van de Wetering suggested that the Paris Self-Portrait (A40) should be categorized as one
in which Rembrandt used his own face without originally intending the painting to be a selfportrait; see Ernst van de Wetering, “Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits: Problems of Authenticityand Function,” in Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus ofRembrandt Paintings, 6 vols., ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and London,1982-2014), 1:380; 4:182.
9. On the growing market for artists’ self-portraiture in the seventeenth-century, particularly
Rembrandt’s, see Ernst van de Wetering’s chapter “Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits: Problems ofAuthenticity and Function,” in Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project,A Corpusof Rembrandt Paintings, 6 vols., ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and London,1982–2014), 4:89–317.

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10. Jaap van der Veen, “Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Workshop 1631–1638,” in Uylenburgh andSon: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse, 1625–1675 (Zwolle, 2006),
126–35.
11. Jaap van der Veen, “Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Workshop 1631–1638,” in Uylenburgh andSon: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse, 1625–1675 (Zwolle, 2006), 136;
see also Piet Bakker’s biography of Jouderville in the present catalogue.
12. For the dates of Jouderville’s apprenticeship with Rembrandt, and the documentary
evidence that suggests he went to Amsterdam to continue his tutelage with Rembrandt, see
Piet Bakker’s biography of Jouderville in the present catalogue.
13. Ernst van de Wetering, “Isaac Jouderville, a Pupil of Rembrandt,” in Albert Blankert et al.,The Impact of Genius: Rembrandt, His Pupils and Followers in the Seventeenth Century(Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Waterman Gallery; Groningen, Groninger Museum) (Amsterdam,1983), 66; Toshiharu Nakamura, “Rembrandt’s Workshop and Rembrandt as a Teacher,” inRembrandt, His Teachers, and Pupils (Exh. cat. Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art; Chiba,Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art; Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art)
(Tokyo, 1992), 199–209; Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, 5 vols. (TheHague, 1982–[2011]), 4:182, fig. 145.
14. Ernst van de Wetering, “Isaac Jouderville, a Pupil of Rembrandt,” in Albert Blankert et al.,The Impact of Genius: Rembrandt, His Pupils and Followers in the Seventeenth Century(Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Waterman Gallery; Groningen, Groninger Museum) (Amsterdam,1983), 59–69. For the Young Woman with a Necklace in Chapel Hill, see Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , 6 vols., ed.
Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and London, 1982–2014), 2:680–84, no. C58.
15. Ernst van de Wetering, “Isaac Jouderville, a Pupil of Rembrandt,” in Albert Blankert et al.,The Impact of Genius: Rembrandt, His Pupils and Followers in the Seventeenth Century(Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Waterman Gallery; Groningen, Groninger Museum) (Amsterdam,1983), 66; Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt
Paintings, 6 vols., ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and London, 1982–2014),
1:502–7, C9.
16. A revision involving the adjustment of the legs was also found in an X-radiograph of
Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait in Liverpool (A33) from about the same time as the self-portrait inthe Petit Palais. See Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus ofRembrandt Paintings, 6 vols., ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and London,
1982–2014), 2:840.
17. The signature of the Paris self-portrait, which reads, “Rembrant.f 1631” is highly revealing ofits period of execution. Not only was it painted on top of an original “RHL” monogram, butthere was only a short period between 1632 and 1633 in which Rembrandt used this form ofsignature. It therefore seems likely that Rembrandt backdated the painting to 1631, while© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress
Page 8 of 11adding a new signature, in 1633. See Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project,A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, 6 vols., ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, andLondon, 1982–2014), 1:379; 2:840; 4:182–83.

Provenance
Madame Lerouge, Paris (her sale, Paris, 27 April 1818, no. 46, as by Rembrandt [for 2,460
francs to Bruno]).
G. Couteaux, Paris.
Chevalier van Deuren de Beauré (his sale, Paris, 26 February 1844, no. 45, as byRembrandt).
Alexandre Tardieu (his sale, J., Paris, 4 February 1851, no. 14, as by Rembrandt [to EtienneLeroy]).
François Nieuwenhuys Collection, Paris, by 1852.
Piérard de Valenciennes (his sale, Paris, 20–21 March 1860, no. 66, as by Rembrandt).
Éduoard Kums, Antwerp (his sale, Antwerp, 17–18 May 1898, no. 126, as by Rembrandt [for22,000 francs to Le Roy, Paris and Bruxelles]).
A. M. Byers, Pittsburgh, by 1900.
Baron Arthur de Schickler, Paris, by 1916 [Edouard Jonas Gallery, New York, 1927].
Private collection, Switzerland, by 1936.
M. C. de Coppet, Ghent.
Private collection [Emmanuel Moatti, Paris, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition History
The Edouard Jonas Galleries, New York, 1927.
Amsterdam, Museum het Rembrandthuis, on loan with the permanent collection,1995–2007.
London, National Gallery, “Rembrandt by Himself,” 9 June–5 September 1999; The Hague,
Mauritshuis, 25 September 1999–9 January 2000, no. 29b [lent by the Museum het
Rembrandthuis, inv. 276].
Norfolk, Virginia, The Chrysler Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 2010–2011© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress
Page 9 of 11[lent by the present owner].
Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, March2013–March 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].

References
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, andFrench Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 6:199; 7:109, no. 299, as Rembrandt.
Von Bode, Wilhelm. The Complete Work of Rembrandt, History, Description andHeliographic Reproduction of All the Master’s Pictures, with a Study of His Life . Assisted byCornelis Hofstede de Groot. 8 vols. Paris, 1897, 1:139, no. 54, as Rembrandt.
Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. 2 vols. Vienna and Leipzig,
1906–11, 2:96.
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, 6:199, under no. 350, as a copy after Rembrandt. Translated fromBeschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. 2 vols. Oxford, 1942, 1:21, no. 16, as copy
after Rembrandt.
Bruyn, Josua, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings . 5 vols. The Hague, 1982–[2011], 1:
under A40, 381, fig. 7; 2:840; 3:17, fig. 4.
Van der Wetering, Ernst. “Isaac Jouderville, a Pupil of Rembrandt.” In Albert Blankert et al.
The Impact of a Genius: Rembrandt, His Pupils and Followers in the SeventeenthCentury, 66, fig. 9, as Jouderville. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Waterman Gallery; Groningen,Groninger Museum. Amsterdam, 1983.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden . 6 vols. Landau,1983–[1994], 2:1447, no. 948, as Jouderville.
Nakamura, Toshiharu. “Rembrandt’s Workshop and Rembrandt as a Teacher.” In
Rembrandt, His Teachers, and His Pupils , 203. Exh. cat. Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum ofArt; Chiba, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art; Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefectural© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Rembrandt in Oriental Dress
Page 10 of 11Museum of Art. Tokyo, 1992.
White, Christopher and Buvelot, Quentin, eds. Rembrandt by Himself. Exh. cat. The Hague,Mauritshuis; London, National Gallery of Art. Zwolle, 1999–2000, 139, no. 29b, attributed toJouderville.
Bruyn, Josua. “Rembrandt’s Workshop: Function and Production.” In Rembrandt: TheMaster and His Workshop. Edited by Christopher Brown, J. Kelch, and P. J. J. van Thiel. 2vols. Exh. cat. Berlin, Altes Museum; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; London, National Gallery,1991–92, 72–73, fig. 83, 87.
Van Straten, Roelof. Young Rembrandt: The Leiden Years, 1606–1632 . Leiden, 2005, 209,no. 376.
Franken, Michiel. “Learning by Imitation: Copying Paintings in Rembrandt’s Workshop.” In
Ernst van de Wetering et al. Rembrandt: Quest of a Genius . Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum
het Rembrandthuis; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Zwolle, 2006, 160,
fig. 172.

Versions
Versions and Copies
1. Rembrandt van Rijn, The Artist in Oriental Costume, with a Poodle at His Feet , 1631, oil onpanel, 66.5 x 52 cm, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, inv. no. 925.

2. After Rembrandt, The Artist in Oriental Costume , oil on panel, 35 x 29 cm, Muséed’Archéologie et des Beaux-Arts, Vienna (Isère), no. 80; Corpus A40, Copy 2.

3. After Rembrandt, The Artist in Oriental Costume , oil on canvas, 30.5 x 24 cm, present
whereabouts unknown, formerly estate of F. Mogin-Zorn (sale, Brussels, 26–27 November1974); Corpus A40, Copy 3.

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The support is a rectangular composite panel comprising two vertically grained oak planks ofsimilar widths.[1] The vertical panel join left of center extends through the feather plume and the© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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figure’s proper right eye, torso, and proper right shoe. There are no bevels, and the panel has
been thinned and cradled. There are eight import stamps, six paper labels, two paper label
remnants and two small red wax dots, but no obvious panel maker’s mark.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been applied smoothly
along the background depicted in shadow and with short strokes of thicker paste and low
brushmarkings along the background and foreground depicted in highlight. The figure’s drapery
is painted in low impasto.
The painting is inscribed in dark paint along the upper left corner, although this is thought to be alater addition.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. A
compositional change visible in the infrared images is the lower edge of the figure’s drapery,
which was shortened during the paint stage. The X-radiograph reveals a halo of radio-opaque
paint surrounding the upper half of the figure and a rectangular form along the upper left
quadrant that was painted out during the paint stage but whose warm underlayer shows through.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2004 and remains
in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only. Bevels cut along thelower edge of the panel reverse between the fixed vertical cradle members suggest thepanel had previously been prepared for dendrochronology sometime prior to its acquisition.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection