Self-portrait
studio of Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606 – Amsterdam 1669)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1623 - circa 1629
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
228 x 184 mm
Place of origin
Holland
Order this imageCollection
Knightshayes Court, Devon
NT 541107
Caption
Sir John and Lady Heathcoat Amory, the last generation of the family to live at Knightshayes, bought this painting in 1948 as an original work by Rembrandt van Rijn. In subsequent years, it was reattributed as a copy of Rembrandt’s Self-portrait of c. 1628, now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. In 2018, art historian Bendor Grosvenor suggested that the Knightshayes picture could in fact be a study by Rembrandt for the finished Rijksmuseum picture. The painting became the subject of a ‘Britain’s Lost Masterpieces’ programme, first broadcast on 15 August 2018. As part of the programme, the picture underwent cleaning and scientific analysis. Later layers of overpainting were removed from the background, revealing its true quality as an early 17th-century Dutch work of art. Dendrochronology (tree-ring) analysis showed that the oak panel on which the picture is painted dates from the 1620s and is from the same tree as another version of the picture in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel, Germany. Examination of the ground layer applied to prepare the panel for painting showed it is the same technique used in Rembrandt’s studio. All this provided compelling evidence that the picture was painted in Rembrandt’s studio. Grosvenor continues to believe that the painting is by Rembrandt, but Ernst van Wetering, the leading authority on Rembrandt, is unconvinced. Further research will hopefully uncover more about this picture and its relationship to the Rijksmuseum Self-portrait.
Summary
Oil painting on oak panel, Self-portrait, by studio of Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606 – Amsterdam 1669), c. 1623-9. A portrait of a young man with tousled hair shown in three-quarter view, facing, with shadows cast across the face, the proper right cheek illuminated. To create the highlights in the sitter's curls, the artist has used the end of a paint brush to scratch out, with varying degrees of pressure. The portrait is attributed to an artist or pupil in Rembrandt's studio, after a portrait by the master of the same title in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv.no. SK-A-4691). Dendrochronology carried out by Dr Peter Klein showed that the earliest date for the present painting is 1623. The panel support was made from the same tree as the panel used for another version of the self-portrait in the Kassel museum (whose attribution is ‘studio of Rembrandt’).
Provenance
Edward Speelman, London, bought at Agnews on 21 April 1948, by whom sold to Sir John Heathcoat Amory on 4 June 1948; bequeathed to the Knightshayes Garden Trust on his death in 1972.
Credit line
Knightshayes Court, The Heathcote-Amory Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
studio of Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606 – Amsterdam 1669), artist after Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606 – Amsterdam 1669), artist
