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Bust of a Bearded Old Man
Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)1633
oil on paper, mounted on panel
10.6 x 7.2 cm
signed and dated along top: “Rembrandt 1633”
RR-116

How to cite
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Bust of a Bearded Old Man” (2019). 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.

Situated close to the picture plane, head turned sharply and eyes cast downward, theComparative Figureselderly man depicted in Rembrandt’s small, monochromatic oil sketch pulsates withlife. With his lips slightly parted and his body seeming to rise with a passing breath,he occupies a world that is nearly the viewer’s own. Rembrandt’s vigorous
brushstrokes animate the sitter’s psychological being and physical presence, making
this bust-length image seem far larger than it is in reality. Light streaming in from theupper left falls on the right side of the elderly man’s face and models his threedimensional form. His eyes are open and alert as they focus intensely upon something
beyond the composition. Rembrandt emphasized the sitter’s emotional energy throughthe rhythmic interplay of grays and browns, adding ocher and white accents thatappear on the subject’s wiry beard and the curly hair tumbling over his forehead. Bothdelicate and powerful, Bust of a Bearded Old Man encapsulates the profoundhumanity of Rembrandt’s finest works.
Bust of a Bearded Old Man is Rembrandt’s smallest known painting, and the only
grisaille by the artist in private hands.[1] The deep resonance it carries for the beholder
arises from an extraordinary paradox: its size—it fits in the palm of one’s

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Old Man
Seated with Folded Hands, ca. 1631,
black and red chalk on reddish-yellow
washed paper, incised, 226 x 157 mm,
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche
Museen, Berlin, Germany, inv. no.
KDZ 1151, bpk Bildagentur /Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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hand—belies its monumentality. As Wilhelm Martin, who was then director of theMuseen / Art Resource, NY.

Mauritshuis, noted in 1923, all of Rembrandt’s “prodigious virtuosity” is found in the
power of the bearded man’s face.[2] The painting was at that point in the collection ofBaron Leon Janssen in Brussels, but Martin would not forget it, and when the painting
was auctioned in 1927 after the Baron’s death, the Mauritshuis actively sought toacquire it. The museum, however, was outbid by Knoedler’s, which immediately
offered the painting to Andrew W. Mellon, noting in its letter to Mellon, “This isconsidered by the greatest connoisseurs of Rembrandt as one of his greatest gems.”[3]Rembrandt’s interest in depicting the physical and psychological character of aging
men and women emerged in the late 1620s, when he was a young artist in Leiden, andcontinued unabated throughout his life. The elderly, whether family members, models
in his studio, or random figures he encountered conversing on street corners, clearlyfascinated Rembrandt for their expressive physical qualities and underlying

Fig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn, Old Manwith Beard Facing Downwards, Three
Quarters, to the Right, 1631, etchingwith annotations in pen, 120 x 118
mm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv.
no. RP-P-1959-667.

humanity.[4] He made individual character studies, or tronies, of the elderly indrawings, etchings, and paintings, and these works often served as inspiration for
figures in his biblical and mythological scenes.[5]Rembrandt painted Bust of a Bearded Old Man in 1633, shortly after he had settled in
Amsterdam, revisiting—and in many ways reinventing—a figural type that had
preoccupied him when he was in Leiden. In a group of drawings and etchings that heexecuted in 1630 and 1631, Rembrandt depicted an elderly man with a thick, wiry
beard, large forehead, and distinctive features.[6] A core image from this group is a
red-chalk drawing of the figure seen full length and gazing downward as he sits in anarmchair with hands folded in his lap (fig 1).[7] The drawing is a masterly depiction ofmood, not only because of the elderly man’s reflective pose but also because of thestrong contrasts of light and shade that play out in rich variations of red chalk. The
related etchings that Rembrandt made in 1630–31 are bust-length images that focus

Fig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, Ecce
Homo, 1634, oil on paper mounted
onto canvas, 54.4 x 44.5 cm, National
Gallery, London, bought 1894, inv. no.
NG1400, © National Gallery, London/ Art Resource, NY.

on the bearded man’s head and upper body (fig 2).[8] In each of these etchings,
Rembrandt subtly varied the man’s pose by changing the angle of his head andaltering the length and texture of his beard. The loose and fluid lines of the etchingneedle enhance the plasticity of the figure. Most importantly, Rembrandt adjusted theintensity and focus of his chiaroscuro effects to convey a different psychological stateof mind in each of the etchings.[9]Bust of a Bearded Old Man transcends Rembrandt’s depictions of the elderly man
seen in the earlier etchings. Boldly executed, the figure in this oil sketch fills thecomposition, his darkened forearm extending beyond the picture plane. The man’s
physical appearance is also somewhat different, as curly hair now falls over his
wrinkled forehead, visually evoking his active mind and emotional energy.
Rembrandt created this tronie with great assuredness and seeming speed, laying out

Fig 4. Rembrandt van Rijn, Drawing
from Album amicorum II van
Burchard Grossman, 1634, pen andbrown ink with wash, 89 x 71 mm,
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Bust of a Bearded Old Man
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the entire composition alla prima and making no changes during the painting
process.[10] He exploited the physical characteristics of paint, oscillating between

Library of the Netherlands, The
Hague.

controlled refinement and loose, textured bravura. For example, while thick, fluid
strokes define the man’s sleeve, the ground layer remains visible in other parts of his
robe and hair. It is unlikely, however, that Rembrandt painted this image directlyfrom life (naar het leven). His adaptation of a figural motif developed in Leiden
suggests that he rendered it uit den gheest, or from his imagination, neverthelessimbuing it with the sensitivity and immediacy of a life study.[11]Scholars have consistently remarked on the extraordinary character of Bust of a

Fig 5. Rembrandt van Rijn’s Bust of a
Bearded Old Man, 1633, displayed in avelvet travel box commissioned byAndrew Mellon.

Bearded Old Man, although the small size of this grisaille oil sketch and its unusual
support—paper mounted on panel—have elicited a number of differing opinions
about its original function.[12] In 1968, Horst Gerson suggested that the painting
represented “a fragment of a grisaille sketch,” but the integrity of the composition asa whole and its “self-contained” nature argue otherwise.[13] The bold black lines thatsurround the composition, which act as a kind of framing device, as well as thebrushstrokes that extend confidently along the edges of the paper, indicate that thepainting has not been reduced in size.[14]In the 1980s, Bob Haak and Josua Bruyn, members of the Rembrandt Research
Project, suggested that, because of its size and paper support, Bust of a Bearded Old
Man may have been intended as a preparatory oil sketch, or modello, for an etching or
engraving.[15] The limited tones of blacks, whites, and grays in grisaille were
beneficial for working out the design of a print, particularly in the depiction of lightand shadow.[16] Artists and printmakers employed this practice regularly in the
Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Rembrandt himself used
it on at least one occasion. The Ecce Homo from 1634 (fig 3), which he executed ingrisaille, was transferred directly onto an etching plate.[17] Rembrandt produced
several other grisaille sketches in the mid-1630s, including Joseph Telling His Dreams,
1634 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), but it is unclear whether they were also designs
intended for prints, as no corresponding etchings for any of them survive.[18] Thenarrative subject matter, multifigural composition, and coarse handling of thesegrisailles, however, share little with the character of Bust of a Bearded Old Man,
whose powerful ability to move the viewer—in its painterly technique and emotional
spirit—suggests that Rembrandt intended it as an independent work of art.[19]Haak and Bruyn also proposed that Rembrandt may have painted Bust of a Bearded
Old Man for an album amicorum, or friendship album.[20] They suggested that thiscontext could explain the painting’s large signature and date, and paper support.[21]Their point of reference was a pen-and-wash drawing of an old man that Rembrandt
executed for the Album amicorum II van Burchard Grossmann in 1634 (fig 4).[22]© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Depicted half length and in three-quarter view, the drawing of a bearded man, withhis head turned and his left arm placed prominently in the foreground, bears a
number of similarities to Bust of a Bearded Old Man. Yet this delicate drawing, whichis accompanied by a moralizing inscription, has an entirely different character thanthe oil sketch in The Leiden Collection.[23] Moreover, as Albert Blankert has rightly
argued, the physical character of an oil painting, particularly in a work painted withthis rich impasto, makes it unlikely that it was intended for the pages of an album
amicorum.[24]The confident, self-contained nature of Bust of a Bearded Old Man argues strongly
that Rembrandt painted this remarkable oil sketch as an independent work of art.
Intimately connected to his ongoing interest in depicting reflective, elderly men, thepainting is one of Rembrandt’s most compelling explorations of the physical andpsychological character of such figures. By executing this study in grisaille,
Rembrandt captured subtleties of form, light, and shade in unparalleled ways, evoking
the inner life and individuality of this expressive sitter. Bust of a Bearded Old Man is
exceptional for its visual power and masterly technique, and for the way it allows theviewer to look closely and reflect deeply about the human emotions so poignantly
captured in this small masterpiece.
Bust of a Bearded Old Man carries an illustrious provenance that stretches back to thelate eighteenth century. One of its most important owners was Andrew W. Mellon,
who acquired the painting from Knoedler’s in 1928, and it immediately became oneof the jewels of his collection.[25] Mellon had a special velvet-encased travel box madefor the painting, which still exists (fig 5). It is rumored that he carried the work withhim everywhere he went and otherwise displayed it on his desk. Bust of a Bearded
Old Man captivated the present collector over fifteen years ago when he first saw it in
an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[26] and, like Wilhelm Martin, henever forgot it. He was finally able to acquire it in 2018, and this small gem is now
one of the pinnacles of The Leiden Collection’s extensive assemblage of works by
Rembrandt.

- Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2019

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. For a discussion of Rembrandt’s other works in grisaille, see below.
2. Wilhelm Martin described the painting in the collection of Baron Janssen in Brussels in 1923 as “toute laprodigieuse virtuosité du maître se trahit dans cette tête puissante.” Wilhelm Martin, Catalogue de laCollection de Peintures du Baron Janssen a Bruxelles (Brussels, 1923), no. 94.
3. The letter continues, “It is the smallest painting by the artist to exist and has a very distinguishedpedigree, which will be sent to you when we render our bill in due course. It is a unique little picture of
the very highest possible quality—signed and dated. The great Museum who were the under-bidders
own twenty of the finest works in existence by the Master, which will give you an idea how much they
prize this little gem.” The letter, dated June 8, 1928, was written by Carman H. Messmore, who was thenan art dealer with Knoedler & Co. GRI Digital Collections, M. Knoedler & Co., Letter copying book:
Domestic

letters,

1928

May

22–1928

September

7,

leaf

170,

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2012m54b1434 (accessed January 11, 2019).
4. See, for example, Christiaan Vogelaar and Gerbrand Korevaar, eds., Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth andReality (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Leiden, 2005).
5. See, for example, Two Old Men Disputing, 1628 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne); Head of an
Old Man Wearing a Cap, ca. 1630 (Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston); andJeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, 1630 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Rembrandt shared
this interest with Jan Lievens; see, for instance, Lievens’s Bearded Man in a Beret, ca. 1630 (National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).
6. For the etchings, see discussion below. For Rembrandt’s drawings of old men in red chalk, see Otto
Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 1: no. 20, fig. 20, no.
40, fig. 40, no. 41, fig. 50; Martin Royalton-Kisch, “The Drawings of Rembrandt: A Revision of Otto
Benesch’s Catalogue Raisonné,” www.rembrandtcatalogue.net. For further discussion, see Holm Bevers,
Peter Schatborn, and Barbara Welzel, Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop: Drawings and Etchings(Exh. cat. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Altes Museum;
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; London, National Gallery) (New Haven, 1991), 26–28.
7. The related red-chalk drawings of this figure study are Old Man Seated, 1630 (Private Collection) and
Seated Old Man, 1631 (Teylers Museum, Haarlem). There is also a bust-length version in profile, Old
Man Seated, 1630 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).
8. Rembrandt made four etchings of this subject: Old Man with a Flowing Beard, B.309, 1630; Bust of an
Old Man with a Flowing Beard, B.325, 1630; Old Man with Beard Facing Downwards, Three Quarters, tothe Right, B.260, 1631 (see fig. 2); Bust of an Old Man with a Flowing Beard, B.291, ca. 1630.
9. In the first state of one of these etchings (see fig. 2), Rembrandt made corrections in pen and brown ink
along the folds of the figure’s arm and robe that are reminiscent of accents that he would develop more
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fully in the painted study. This etching was illustrated in reverse in Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2: 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The
Hague, 1986), 2: no. A74, in order to draw attention to its close relationship with Bust of a Bearded Old
Man. I.Q. van Regteren Altena made the attribution of the corrections in pen and ink to Rembrandt in
the Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 9 (1961): 3–10. For an overview of Rembrandt’s head studies fromaround 1630, see Thomas E. Rassieur, “Head Studies and Fantasy Portraits,” in Rembrandt’s Journey:
Painter, Draftsman, Etcher, ed. Clifford Ackley (Exh. cat. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, Art
Institute of Chicago) (Boston, 2004), 92–100.
10. These observations were made by Kristin deGhetaldi after physical examination and technical imagingof the painting. See Technical Summary.
11. The painting’s lifelike manner demonstrates Rembrandt’s powerful ability to coalesce the artistic
traditions of working naar het leven and uit den gheest. For a discussion of some of these ideas in an
artist’s working practices in this period, see William W. Robinson and Peter Schatborn, “Drawing into
Painting: An Overview,” in Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt, eds. Ger Luijten, Peter
Schatborn, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Paris,
Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt) (Milan, 2016), 5–16.
12. It is not clear when the paper was mounted to panel, and whether this was done in Rembrandt’s
workshop, by the artist himself, or at a later stage. Recent X-ray images reveal woodworm tunnels on
both the front and back of the panel, suggesting that the paper was adhered to the panel at a later point(after previous use) and then subsequently cradled (see Technical Summary). The practice of mounting
paper onto a wooden or canvas support occurred in a number of Rembrandt’s works from this period:
Joseph Telling His Dreams, 1633–34, oil on paper laid on cardboard (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); Ecce
Homo, 1634, oil on paper, stuck on canvas (National Gallery, London); The Lamentation over the Dead
Christ, ca. 1635, oil on paper and canvas, mounted on panel (National Gallery, London).
13. Gerson related Bust of a Bearded Old Man to Rembrandt’s “powerful” drawings of the 1630s, such as
Christ and His Disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, 1634 (Teylers Museum, Haarlem). He called thesignature on Bust of a Bearded Old Man “spurious,” though he believed the date to be in seventeenthcentury script. Scholars have largely dismissed Gerson’s interpretation; the Rembrandt Research Projectdescribed the painting as a “self-contained work.” The RRP also considered the signature and date to beauthentic. The recent cleaning of Bust of a Bearded Old Man confirmed that the signature and date areintact. See Horst Gerson, Rembrandt: Paintings (Amsterdam, 1968), no. 183; Josua Bruyn et al., A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2: 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project(The Hague, 1986), 2: 353.
14. There is no indication that the black framing lines were added later, and the lack of detail visible
beneath them, as seen in the infrared image, suggests that Rembrandt may have originally painted themhimself. Similar black framing lines appear in The Lamentation at the Foot of the Cross, ca. 1634–35(British Museum, London), a drawing that was executed in pen and brown ink and brown wash, with red
and perhaps black chalk, and reworked in oils in grisaille. This drawing is closely related to The© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Lamentation over the Dead Christ, ca. 1635 (National Gallery, London). For further discussion of the
British Museum drawing and its relation to the National Gallery grisaille painting, see David Bomford etal., Art in the Making: Rembrandt (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery) (London, 2006), 100–109;
Martin Royalton-Kisch, Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt and His School (London, 2010), cat. no. 9.
The application of the gray paint in the background of Bust of a Bearded Old Man has also been donewith careful intentionality; certain areas around the contours of the figure indicate that Rembrandt went
back over the composition after he had already completed the figure.
15. Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 353. This idea was more or less dismissed in the entry
itself, but has remained a possibility noted in the scholarship. See, for example, Leonard Slatkes,
Rembrandt: Catalogo complete dei dipini (Florence, 1992), no. 213.
16. For an overview of grisaille in Rembrandt’s oeuvre, see Ronni Baer, “Rembrandt’s Oil Sketches,” inRembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher, ed. Clifford Ackley (Exh. cat. Boston, Museum ofFine Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago) (Boston, 2004), 32–33.
17. The Ecce Homo grisaille was used for an etching in 1635/36 (B.77). When the print is examined inraking light, it is evident that many of the outlines of the composition have been indented with a stylus
in the process of transferring the design to the etching plate. This is the only known evidence of thisprocess occurring in Rembrandt’s work. See David Bomford et al., Art in the Making: Rembrandt (Exh.
cat. London, National Gallery) (London, 2006), 75–81.
18. Joseph Telling His Dreams, 1633 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) may have served as a preparatory sketch
for a print, but there is no physical evidence that such a practice was carried out. A smaller etching of
the subject, likely based on the grisaille sketch, appeared in 1638 (Joseph Telling His Dreams, etching,B.37). The figure of Jacob in Joseph Telling His Dreams is based on one of the red-chalk figure studies
that Rembrandt made in Leiden in 1631 (Private Collection). See Clifford Ackley, Rembrandt’s Journey:
Painter, Draftsman, Etcher (Exh. cat. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago)(Boston, 2004), 118–22; Ger Luijten, Peter Schatborn, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., eds., Drawings for
Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Paris,
Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt) (Milan, 2016), 158–59.
19. Bust of a Bearded Old Man, Joseph Telling His Dreams, and Ecce Homo form part of a group of grisaillepaintings Rembrandt produced between 1633 and 1635, along with St. John the Baptist Preaching, 1634
(Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin); The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, ca. 1635 (National Gallery,
London); The Entombment, ca. 1630s (Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow); and Concord of
the State, 1635–40 (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam). Various arguments have been put
forth as to the context of and intention for these grisaille oil sketches—particularly whether they wereintended as preparatory designs for prints, like the Ecce Homo—but, as noted above, there is noevidence that Rembrandt ever used this practice again. A number of other Dutch and Flemish artists,such as Otto van Veen, Peter Paul Rubens, Hendrick Goltzius, Abraham Bloemaert, Pieter Lastman, andJan Lievens, worked in grisaille at various points of their careers. Among those known especially for© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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working in grisaille was Adriaen van de Venne. For discussion and further references on this subject,see, for instance, Ronni Baer, “Rembrandt’s Oil Sketches,” in Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman,
Etcher, ed. Clifford Ackley (Exh. cat. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago)(Boston, 2004), 29–44.
20. Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2: 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 353.
21. Ernst van de Wetering upholds this theory in Corpus VI, arguing that the work’s original placement in analbum amicorum is a likely explanation for the large signature and date. Ernst van de Wetering et al., A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, withcollaboration of Carin van Nes, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2014), 6:
no. 103, 529.
22. See Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen, The Rembrandt Documents (New York, 1979), 111,
no. 1634/6.
23. The inscription reads: “Een vroom gemoet / Acht eer voor goet” (An upright soul prizes honor above
wealth).
24. Albert Blankert, Rembrandt: A Genius and His Impact (Exh. cat. Melbourne, National Gallery ofVictoria; Canberra, National Gallery of Austraila) (Zwolle, 1997–98), 115.
25. See Provenance.
26. Clifford Ackley, ed., Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher (Exh. cat. Boston, Museum ofFine Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago) (Boston, 2004).

ProvenancePossibly Mrs. Van Sonsbeeck, before 1751.
Fréderic Szarvady (d. 1882), Paris (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 21 February 1874, no. 39 [for 2500
francs]).
V. Borie, Paris, 1881.
Private collection, Paris, 1900 [to F. Kleinberger Galleries]).
[F. Kleinberger Galleries, Paris, 1900 (to Baron Léon Janssen)].
Baron Léon Janssen (1849–1923), Brussels, by 1905 (his sale, Frederik Muller & Cie, Amsterdam, 26
April 1927, no. 94 [to M. Knoedler & Co. for 35,200 florins]).
[M. Knoedler & Co., New York (to Andrew W. Mellon for $18,000)].
Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937), Washington, D.C., 1928; by descent to his son Paul Mellon (1907–99)(to Arthur Amory Houghton Jr.).
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Arthur Amory Houghton Jr. (1906–90), New York and Queenstown, M.D., by 1955 [through Richard L.
Feigen & Co., New York (to Saul P. Steinberg)].
Saul P. Steinberg (1939–2012), New York, 1984 (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 1997, no. 39[to private collection, Tokyo and London).[1]Private collection, Tokyo and London.
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2018.

Provenance Notes

1. Frans van Mieris’s Death of Lucretia, now in The Leiden Collection, was also formerly in the collectionof Saul P. Steinberg.

Exhibition History
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, “Rembrandt-hulde te Leiden,” 15 July–15 September 1906, no.
51 [lent by Baron Léon Janssen].
Brussels, “International Exhibition of Miniatures,” 1912, no. 1046 [lent by Baron Léon Janssen].
The Hague, Koninklijke Kunstzaal Kleykamp, “Tentoonstelling van schilderijen door oud-hollandsche
en vlaamsche meesters,” 1927, no. 32 [lent by Baron Léon Janssen].
New York, National Academy of Design, “Dutch and Flemish Paintings from New York Private
Collections,” 1988–89, no. 38 [lent by Saul P. Steinberg].
Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, “Rembrandt: A Genius and His Impact,” 1 October–7
December 1997; Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, 17 December 1997–15 February 1998, no. 9[lent by private collection].
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, “Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher,” 26 October 2003–18
January 2004; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 14 February–9 May 2004, no. 31 [lent by private
collection].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019 [lent by the present
owner].
Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam, “Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: History Paintings from The
Leiden Collection,” 4 February–27 August 2023, no. 8 [lent by the present owner].

References© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Von Bode, Wilhelm, and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. Rembrandt: beschreibendes Verzeichnis seiner
Gemälde mit den heliographischen Nachbildungen: Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Kunst. Paris, 1906,
8: no. 565.
Von Bode, Wilhelm, and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. The Complete Work of Rembrandt. History,
Description and Heliographic Reproduction of all the Master’s Pictures with a Study of his Life and His
Art. Translated by F. Simmonds. Paris, 1906, 8: 37, 91–93, no. 565.
Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Rembrandt-hulde te Leiden: catalogus der tentoonstelling van schilderijen
en teekeningen van Rembrandt en van schilderijen van andere Leidsche Meesters der Zeventiende Eeuw.
Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Leiden, 1906, 17, no. 51.
Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. Fêtes de Rembrandt à Leyde: Catalogue de l’exposition de tableaux et dedessins de Rembrandt et d’autres maîtres de Leyde, du dix-septième siècle. Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk
Museum De Lakenhal. Leiden, 1906, 17, no. 51.
Schmidt-Degener, Frederik. “Le troisième centenaire de Rembrandt en Hollande.” Gazette des BeauxArts 36 (1906): 276.
Possibly Bredius, Abraham. “Eenige taxaties van schilderijen in de XVIIe en in het begin der XVIIIeeeuw.” Oud Holland 24 (1906): 238.
Rosenberg, Adolf. Rembrandt: des Meisters Gemälde. Edited by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Klassiker der
Kunst in Gesamtausgaben. 3rd Edition. Stuttgart, 1908, 114, no. B 565.
Von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. Vienna, 1910, 2: 397.
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. Translated and edited by Edward G. Hawke.
London, 1916, 6: 206, no. 369.
L’Exposition de la miniature à Bruxelles en 1912: recueil des oeuvres les plus remarquables des minaturistes
de toutes les Ecoles, du XVIe au XIXe siècle. Brussels, 1913, 94, pl. LVII, no. 1046.
Lambotte, Paul. “Exposition de la Miniature.” L’Art Flamand & Hollandais Revue Mensuelle Illustrée 17(1912): 156, ill.
Lambotte, Paul. “Tentoonstelling van Miniaturen.” Onze kunst, voorzetting van de Vlaamsche school 21(1912): 210, ill.
Martin, Wilhelm. Catalogue de la Collection de Peintures du Baron Janssen à Bruxelles. Brussels, 1923, vvi, 140–41, no. 94.
Koninklijke Kunstzaal Kleykamp. Tentoonstelling van schilderijen door oud-hollandsche en vlaamsche
meesters. Exh. cat. The Hague, Koninklijke Kunstzaal Kleykamp. The Hague, 1927, 16, no. 32.
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Hollandaise et Flamande des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Sales cat. Amsterdam, Frederik Muller & Cie,
1927, 38, no. 94.
Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. Vienna, 1936, no. 183.
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt: Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, no. 153.
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Gerson, Horst. Rembrandt: Paintings. Amsterdam, 1968, 274, 494, no. 136.
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no. 114.
Dony, Frans L.M., and Karel Braun. Meesters der Schilderkunst: Alle tot nu toe bekende schilderijen vanRembrandt en een beknopt overzicht van zijn voornaamste werk als etser en tekenaar. Rotterdam, 1969,96, no. 114.
Bolten, Jaap, and Henriette Bolten-Rempt. The Hidden Rembrandt. Oxford, 1978, 181, no. 174.
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York, National Academy of Design. New York, 1988, 87, 103, no. 38.
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Arts; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago. Boston, 2003, 95–96, 313–14, no. 31.
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A Complete Survey. With the collaboration of Carin van Nes. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research
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[Exhibition catalogue also published in Dutch.]© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Vogelaar, Christiaan. “The Leiden Collection.” In Rembrandt

and

his

Contemporaries:

from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Caroline Van Cauwenberge, 10, no.
8. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam. Zwolle, 2023. [Exhibition catalogue also published in
Dutch.]

Versions
Version
1. After Rembrandt, Bust of a Bearded Old Man, n.d., dimensions and medium unknown, current
whereabouts unknown.[1]Versions Notes

1. Photograph in the Photo Archives, RKD, The Hague.

Technical Summary
The paper support has been adhered to a cradled wooden panel of considerable age (presumably oak).[1] The
small size of the oil sketch is exceptional, as is its finished appearance, a characteristic that sets this work
apart from other grisailles dating to this period.[2] The sketch reveals an exceptional degree of confidence inthe handling of paint, particularly in the strokes used to depict the hair, beard, and clothing.
Examination with X-radiography, infrared photography, and infrared reflectography did not reveal any
distinctive changes to the composition.[3] Before the preliminary painted sketch was executed, the paper
support was given a warm tone with a fluid, dark brown paint. The figure was then quickly and confidently
painted with browns, yellows, white, and black; the mouth was formed by applying a tiny, singular daub of
red lake. A similarly muted palette was used to further refine and develop areas of the drapery, the face, andthe hair. Paint was applied both wet-over-dry and wet-into-wet.
The background has an overall green-gray tone, which was also used to refine the contours of the figure.
Final details were applied to the hair and beard. To establish the final format of the composition, the artist
applied black outlines along the outer edges of the painting.[4]The painting is signed and dated in dark paint along the upper edge.
The work was conserved in 2018 and is in excellent and stable condition.
Further technical information about this artwork is available in The Rembrandt Database.
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Technical Summary Endnotes

1. X-radiography revealed the presence of woodworm tunnels that were filled from the front of the panel,indicating that the front and back of the panel had been filled before the paper support was adhered tothe surface. It is not clear when this process occurred, and further research is needed to determine thedating of the panel. In addition, cradling was not frequently performed on wooden supports until the lateeighteenth century. See Paul Ackroyd, “The Structural Conservation of Paintings on Wooden Panel
Supports,” in The Conservation Easel Paintings, ed. Joyce Hill Stoner and Rebecca Anne Rushfield(Oxford: Routledge, 2012), 459.
2. Three comparable works on paper include the Lamentation at the Foot of the Cross, c. 1634–35 (British
Museum, London), Ecce Homo, 1634 (National Gallery, London), and Joseph Telling His Dreams, 1633
(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). I am grateful to curator Lara Yeager-Crasselt at The Leiden Collection
and independent researcher Maaike Dirkx for providing me with these examples.
3. All imaging was carried out at Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware. X-radiography wascollected using a Pantak-Seifert Eresco 65 MF2 equipped with a GE CR50P Phosphor scanner (scans
are collected with GE Rhythm RT software and processed with GE Rhythm Review software). Infrared
reflectography was performed using an FLIR-Alpha NIR camera equipped with an InGaAs detector andvarious filters (incandescent lighting source) that allow for sensitivity within the 900 to 1700 nanometer
range. Infrared photography was performed using a CCD detector (modified Nikon camera) that issensitive within the 750 to 1050 nanometer range. I would like to thank paintings conservator Matthew
Cushman, photographer Jim Schenck, and WUDPAC painting conservation students Tracy Liu, Julianna
Ly, and Jennifer Myers for their assistance throughout the imaging process.
4. The dark black outline along the outer edges of the composition is a curious feature of the painting. Thisline is not present along most of the proper right edge but is relatively consistent in thickness along the
top and proper left edges. Along the bottom edge the black line is the most prominent, measuring
approximately .48 cm (3/16 inches) thick. The black paint does not extend over the outer edges of thepanel.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection