A painting valued in the vicinity of 1,000 euros has been sold for thee million. The piece, now thought to be a Rembrandt self-portrait, had hung on the walls of the owner’s house for years. The previous owner had told him that it had been checked by experts and was not a work of the renown Dutch master. Rembrandt expert Jan Six describes the discovery as ‘amazing’.
An anonymous bidder offered 2.2 million pounds (3.1 million euros) for the painting. Old master specialist Jan Six, who works in the Netherlands for Sotheby’s, was questioned about the painting just before the auction.
Speechless
Mr Six is considered a Rembrandt specialist, one reason being that Rembrandt did a famous portrait of one of his ancestors; the artwork is still in his family’s possession. Mr Six says:
“I was speechless when I saw the portrait and I said right away that it was very good. I took some photographs of the painting so that I could research it further and found that it was mentioned in the 1897 edition of ‘Iconographia Batavia’.”
This standard work, published by E.W. Moes, describes all portraits done in the golden age. According to ‘Iconographia Batavia’ the portraits whereabouts are “unknown”.
Because of the finding - as well as the fact that the painting was signed RHL (Rembrandt Harmensz Leidensis) instead of HL – Six has come to the conclusion that it is highly probably a real Rembrandt. “My client bid a lot of money for the painting, but not enough. It was probably purchased by an art trader who will restore it and sell it at a later date.”
Unique
The self-portrait was probably done in 1629 just before Rembrandt moved from Leiden to Amsterdam. It was painted on copper, which is quite rare for a Rembrandt. Mr Six describes the painting as impressive.
“It's quality is very high and fits perfectly in the series of 58 self-portraits. It is really quite unique.”
However, so far one cannot say with a hundred percent certainty that the painting was the work of Rembrandt. The most authoritative Rembrandt expert, Ernst van de Wetering, is on vacation and has not yet studied the painting. He is the founder of the Rembrandt Research Project which does scientific research on the authenticity of all known works of art by the Dutch master. A number of Rembrandts turned out to have been painted by his students. British art dealer Johnny van Haeften says it is a gamble because he cannot say for sure. He also made a bid, but he did not have three million euros.
It won’t make much of a difference to the person who sold the ‘self-portrait’ whether Rembrandt painted it or not. He will still be getting more than three million for a painting he was going to sell for a thousand.
*Translation RNW (fs)
Tags: Art, Dutch Masters, Dutch Painting, Rembrandt