Abstract
Strong doubts as to the authenticity of this painting have been voiced in the recent Rembrandt literature. This issue is seriously complicated by the painting’s turbulent material history. However, as will become clear, there are a number of arguments that speak for, rather than against the painting’s authenticity.
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Notes
H. Kühn, ‘Untersuchungen zu den Pigmenten und Malgründen Rembrandts, durchgeführt an den Gemälden der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Kassel’, Maltechnik/Restauro 82 (1976), pp. 25–33, esp. 29–30.
H. von Sonnenburg, ‘Rembrandts “Segen Jakobs”’, Maltechnik/Restauro 84 (1978), pp. 217–41, esp. 237–38.
Schwartz 1984; Tümpel 1986.
Possibly the traces of previous, more accentuated brushstrokes have vanished due to abrasion. For a description of radical cleaning methods used in the past, see: R.H. Marijnissen, Degradation, conservation et restauration de l’oeuvre d’art, Brussels 1967, vol. I, pp. 67–72.
Van de Wetering 1997, p. 188.
K. Wehlte, ‘Aus der Praxis der maltechnischen Röntgenographie’, Technische Mitteilungen für Malerei 48 (1932), p. 73.
Exhib. cat. Art in the making, 1988/89, p. 63.
Theodoor Netscher, Portrait of Menno Baron van Coehoorn, doek 109 x 85 cm; Enschede, Rijksmuseum Twente, inv. no. 106. The Portrait of a man with a breastplate and plumed hat (Br. 223) and its pendant the Portrait of a woman (Br. 364) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York appear to be two other cases. In and around the heads, roughly applied radioabsorbent paint can be discerned in the X-radiograph. The strongly contrasting threads of the support visible in these areas, however, indicate that this paint was applied to the back of the canvas. For another opinion, see exhib. cat. Rembrandt/not Rembrandt I 1995/96, pp. 26-27.
G. de Lairesse, Het groot schilderboek, Haarlem 17402 (1707), I, pp. 329–31: ‘…dat men het doek of paneel aldus kan bereiden: de verwen, met droogenden olie dik gevreeven, zal men met terpentynolie zeer dun mengen, en met een zacht kwasje het gemelde doek of paneel op deze wyze overstryken; de lucht blaauw, en de grond graauw of groen, min of meer donker, na maate dat uwe Ordinantie en Aftekening zulks vereischt. (…) Tot deze gronden zal men geen fyne en kostelyke verwen gebruiken, maar gemeene, als zy slechts lyvig zyn en wel dekken.’
V. Schaible, ‘Die Gemäldeübertragung. Studien zur Geschichte einer “klassischen Restauriermethode”’, Maltechnik/Restauro 89 (1983), pp. 96–129.
J. Foucart, Les peintures de Rembrandt au Louvre, Paris 1982, p. 95.
GA Delft, not. W. van Ruyven, NA 2290, doc. 18, dd 23 January–31 March 1689 (Urk. 364). See also the will of Spieringh’s widow in which she determined that the entire estate was to remain undivided until her eldest child had reached the age of 20, ibidem, document 4, dd 21 January 1689.
Amsterdam, University Library ms. UB II A 18. Published by E.W. Moes in: O.H. 31 (1913), p. 20.
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© 2005 Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project
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(2005). Self-portrait. In: A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Rembrandt Research Project Foundation, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4441-0_14
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