Portrait of a Man

ArtistStudio of Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669)

Dateca. 1650

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 27 1/2 x 22 in. (69.9 x 55.9 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineMusuem collection

Object number0.3171

Terms

Man
Black
Brown
White

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas portrait of a man. He wears a dark coat over a white collared shirt. This is an oil on canvas painting. It is a portrait of a man. The palette and clothes are dark. The background is dark but dimly lit behind his head. His collar is the only white garment, and the corners are upturned. His mustache and hair are white. He looks down past the viewers at something in the distance. His face and features are painted with much detail. He has a straight nose, closed mouth and a few visible wrinkles on his forehead.

Label TextUnknown Dutch 17th century Portrait of a Man Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. This modest portrait of an old man was rediscovered in a review of Museum storage in 2003. Frameless and nearly forgotten since its arrival here in 1971 as a gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., the painting bears a partial inscription at the center right: Rem…, which immediately recalls the name of one of the greatest geniuses of the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age of painting, Rembrandt van Rijn. Though the signature was soon found to be a later addition to the portrait and, thus, not original, the painting's style, its dramatic treatment of light and shadow, and the sober characterization of the man portrayed seemed to share much with Rembrandt's art. At first glance, we assumed the painting was a later, 19th-century work done in imitation of Rembrandt and his school. But we resolved to pursue the matter further, and in spring 2004, at the invitation of the Painting Conservation and Scientific Research Departments at the National Gallery of Art, we sent the painting to Washington, D.C., to undergo a series of technical analyses in an effort to determine its approximate age and likely place of origin. The conservation staff at the National Gallery examined the portrait using a stereo microscope, ultraviolet and infrared light, X-radiography and X-ray fluorescence analysis (see illustration). They concluded that the painting's materials, technique, and physical condition were not only consistent with 17th-century Dutch painting of the Rembrandt era, but indicated that the work was likely produced by an artist working in Rembrandt's studio. Though we have not yet identified who, among Rembrandt's pupils, might have painted the portrait, we will continue to pursue the issue of authorship in the coming months. Caption for illustration (in the Chrysler gallery): The underlying paint layers revealed in this X-ray show that the artist altered the shape of the sitter's collar and beard slightly in the finished work.