After being privately kept for nearly two centuries, a pair of recently rediscovered Rembrandt portraits can now be publicly viewed at an exhibition in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, which started on Dec. 13. The pieces will be showcased alongside other works made by the Dutch master in the museum's gallery 2.8, as part of a long-term loan.
Measuring a mere 7.8 by 6.4 inches, the two paintings are now believed to be the smallest works that Rembrandt has ever made outside of studies, according to a report by the Rijksmuseum.
The History Behind the Two Rembrandt Portraits
In 1635, the museum said that Rembrandt may have painted the portraits as a "favor" to the couple Jan Willemsz van der Pluym, who was 69 years old at the time, and Jaapgen Caerlsdr, who was 70, both of whom were considered to be close friends of the artist's family. To add, these portraits were precursors of two larger versions.
These larger works were previously not attributed to the Dutch master until Amsterdam City Archivist Isabel van Eeghen put forward the idea in 1977, following her discovery of all four portraits through a 1760 auction catalog.
The Rijksmuseum has only recently confirmed the attribution of the works to Rembrandt through extensive technical research. Specifically, the institution utilized "X-radiography, infrared photography, infrared reflectography, macro X-ray fluorescence, stereomicroscopy, and paint sample analysis."
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A Set of Authentic Rembrandt Portraits
In a statement to The Art Newspaper, Jonathan Bikker, Rijksmuseum curator of 17th-century Dutch paintings, delved deeper into the identifying elements of the portraits, saying, "These paintings, considering their style, are very sketchy and spontaneous and that's just something a copyist doesn't do."
According to Bikker, they also found remnants of earlier attempts at painting and other "very small changes," and art forgers simply don't consider these human errors when making their copies. He added that these kinds of sequentially added changes were a known "characteristic" that Rembrandt had concerning his "painting process."
After verifying Rembrandt's authorship of the portraits using these "compelling pieces of evidence," the paintings themselves were auctioned in Christie's "Old Masters Part I Sale" last July in London, where they reportedly sold for $14.3 million to Collector Henry Holterman's family, as reported by Artnet.
In recognition of Rijksmuseum's efforts to formally authenticate the attribution of the artworks, Holterman agreed to the long-term lending of the paintings.
