SOTHEBY’S TO SELL LOST REMBRANDT SELF-PORTRAIT
A NEWLY-DISCOVERED Rembrandt self-portrait dated 1634 is to be
offered for sale in Sotheby’s auction of Old Master Paintings in New Bond
Street on Thursday, July 10, 2003. Hidden for over 300 years behind layers of
overpaint, the striking image of one of the world’s most celebrated masters
has recently emerged after years of painstaking cleaning. Estimated to
realise in excess of £5 million, this important discovery is the first Rembrandt
self-portrait to appear at auction in the last 30 years. (The last one sold at
Sotheby’s in 1973.) It is also one of only three known Rembrandt self-portraits
still in private hands.
For some 300 years, Rembrandt’s intimate self-portrait
lay concealed beneath the reworking of one of his pupils
who, shortly after the painting was executed in 1634,
transformed the portrait into a fanciful study of a
flamboyantly dressed Russian aristocrat. Sporting a tall
red hat, long hair, earrings, and a dashing moustache,
this composite figure of a type very popular in the 17th
century remained unremarked as a Rembrandt until well
into the 20th century. A photograph from 1935 (left)
shows the painting as it was then.
The unravelling of the mystery behind the portrait began
tentatively in the mid-20th century when a curious owner
arranged for various elements of the Russian’s attire to
be removed. When the painting was acquired by the
current owner’s father in the 1960s, the tall hat had
already disappeared (left). The owner then removed the
earrings and the extensions of the hair and moustache
(below). But his investigations stopped there, and the
painting was left in a hybrid state - without the
characteristic elements of the Russian’s hair and
clothing, but with large amounts of overpaint still
concealing the highly accomplished self-portrait that lay
beneath.
It is only recently, in the last few years, that scholars and
specialists have come together to study the painting in
depth. In 1995 Professor Ernst van de Wetering, head of
the Rembrandt Research Project, was invited by the
current owner to examine it and was keen to investigate
it further. Four years later, the owner contacted Nicolas
Joly, Head of Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings
department in Paris. He saw the painting with Alex Bell of
Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings in London, and they advised the owner to
have it sent to London for further examination. Their colleague, George
Gordon, said: “What struck us all when we examined it together was the
quality of the painting in the area of the sitter’s lower face, from the tip of his
nose downwards. These parts stood out against the rest of the picture in a
way that strongly suggested that they were the work of a different, and
superior, hand.”
Later that year, after examination in London, Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings
department sent the picture to Martin Bijl, formerly head of conservation at the
Rijksmuseum. The picture was examined with X-rays and infra-red
photography and the pigments were analysed in conjunction with the
Rembrandt Research Project. And so began the complicated process of
peeling back the layers of overpaint and trying to understand the process of
the painting’s transformation. From the moment the painting arrived in
Amsterdam, Martin Bijl and Ernst van de Wetering worked closely and
tirelessly to uncover what they suspected, and found, to be a highly
accomplished self-portrait of Rembrandt as a 28 year-old artist. The original
paint, so long hidden by layers of overpaint, is remarkably well preserved.
The signature and date 1634 are painted “wet in wet”, that is to say into the
underlying paint layer while it was still wet.
Their work has not only brought to light an unknown and important portrait, it
has also cast new light on working practices in Rembrandt’s studio.
Overpainting is generally considered an irreverent practice, usually applied to
outdated works in order to make them conform with the latest fashions.
However, in this case the overpainting was applied very soon after the
original painting was executed – in the same workshop and most probably at
Rembrandt’s instigation. Art historians have always been puzzled by the vast
quantity of self-portraits that Rembrandt produced (there are around 80 in all),
assuming they must have been personal, introspective studies – part of a
search for some psychological truth. However, it now seems that, as Ernst
van de Wetering has shown, Rembrandt may well have produced them as
commodities – both to order and for stock. If they failed to sell, Rembrandt
would either paint over them himself to produce a more commercial subject,
or would allow his students to do the same. In the process of researching the
present painting, it was found that there were three other early self-portraits
that had been either wholly or partially overpainted in this way (one re-painted
by Rembrandt himself, the other two transformed by his pupils). In this
instance, the self-portrait was worked into an image of a fashionable Russian
by one of Rembrandt’s pupils.
Although Rembrandt treated a wide range of subjects in his lifetime, it is
perhaps his self-portraits that most readily capture the imagination. The
subject of recent major exhibitions at the National Gallery and the Mauritshuis
Museum in the Hague, they have proved a source of constant fascination to
students of Dutch art, not only because Rembrandt produced so many of
them, but also because of their extraordinary range and variety. This 1634
self-portrait bears all the characteristics that make Rembrandt’s work so
intriguing and immediate – the young artist stares out at us from beneath the
shadow of his beret, a subtle play of light bringing his features to life in a way
that fully displays his painterly skill.
The emergence of this previously unknown work is not only a major discovery
in its own right, it also marks a turning-point in the way Rembrandt’s selfportraits are perceived and understood. As such, it has provided the basis
for a fascinating exhibition at the Museum Het Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam
and for Ernst van de Wetering’s associated publication, Rembrandt’s Hidden
Self-Portraits. The exhibition at the Rembrandthuis runs until Sunday, March
16, 2003 and the painting will return to London thereafter.
IMAGES AVAILABLE VIA ISDN OR EMAIL
Travelling exhibition - dates to be confirmed.
The painting will be on view at Sotheby’s galleries in New Bond Street in the
week prior to the auction on Thursday, July 10, 2003
*According to two wax seals on the reverse side of the panel, the work was in
the possession of the Gottlob Frege family in Leipzig around 1750. There are
then no records of it until c.1935, when it is known to have been in a French
private collection, possible that of A. Hevesy. In 1966 it was in the
possession of L. Lemonnier in France and since 1966 it has been in a
private collection in France.