Study of an Old Man

probably late 17th century

A man with thick, tousled gray hair and a long beard squared off at the bottom bows his head toward us in this vertical painting. His head and chest nearly fill the canvas against a background that lightens from black in the upper left corner to muted, amber brown in the upper right. Against the surrounding darkness, light falls across the peach-colored flesh of his forehead, right cheek, and nose. His heavy gray brows are drawn together, and they cast shadows over his deep-set eyes. The dark irises moving to our right are just visible. Loose brushstrokes sketch short, gray curls, a few of them streaked with white, covering the top of his head. One gray lock falling down his right temple curls up and out. Gray and tan strokes define individual curling strands of his beard and moustache. His chestnut-brown garment blends into the dark background.

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After learning the fundamentals of drawing and painting in his native Leiden, Rembrandt van Rijn went to Amsterdam in 1624 to study for six months with Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), a famous history painter. Upon completion of his training Rembrandt returned to Leiden. Around 1632 he moved to Amsterdam, quickly establishing himself as the town’s leading artist, specializing in history paintings and portraiture. He received many commissions and attracted a number of students who came to learn his method of painting.

This study of an old bearded man with a sad, forlorn expression is one of a large number of rapidly executed oil sketches introduced into Rembrandt's oeuvre in the early years of the twentieth century. The painting appeared on the London art market in 1905 as a Rembrandt. A few years later a Rembrandt scholar dated it about 1645 and emphasized the painting's "broad, powerful brushwork and deep thoughtful expression which characterize [Rembrandt’s] later style." In most subsequent catalogs of Rembrandt's oeuvre, however, this painting has been doubted, rejected, or omitted entirely. The National Gallery of Art changed its attribution to "Style of Rembrandt" in 1984. X-radiographs reveal that the head is painted over another painting of a head of a man, seen in profile and wearing a hat. The head visible today was almost certainly executed on an old panel after Rembrandt's death, in emulation, or imitation, of the master's work.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 28 x 21.5 cm (11 x 8 7/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.63

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Study of an Old Man, probably late 17th century

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, London); sold 1905 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[1] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Widener collection records, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1969

  • Rembrandt in the National Gallery of Art [Commemorating the Tercentenary of the Artist's Death], National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, no. 7, repro.

Bibliography

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 6(1916):233, no. 448.

1908

  • "P.A.B. Widener Collection, February 1st, 1908." Typescript, 2 vols., Library, National Gallery of Art, 1908: 173.

1909

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. "Nieuw-ontdekte Rembrandts." Onze Kunst 16 (December (1909): 179, 180 fig. 5.

1913

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, and Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pictures in the collection of P. A. B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early German, Dutch & Flemish Schools. Philadelphia, 1913: intro, no. 32, repro.

1914

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. The Art of the Low Countries. Translated by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. Garden City, NY, 1914: 246, no. 52.

1921

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Rembrandt: wiedergefundene Gemälde (1910-1922). Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 27. Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921: xx, 49, no. 53, repro.

1923

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Rembrandt: wiedergefundene Gemälde (1910–1920). Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 27. 2nd ed. Berlin, 1923: xx, 49, no. 53, repro. (also 1923 ed.: xxiv, 56, no. 61, repro.).

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro., as by Rembrandt.

1931

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Rembrandt Paintings in America. New York, 1931: no. 95, repro.

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 96, repro., as by Rembrandt.

1935

  • Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt Schilderijen, 630 Afbeeldingen. Utrecht, 1935: no. 243, repro.

  • Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt Gemälde, 630 Abbildungen. Vienna, 1935: no. 243, repro.

1936

  • Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. New York, 1936: no. 243, repro.

1942

  • National Gallery of Art. Works of art from the Widener collection. Washington, 1942: 6, as by Rembrandt van Ryn.

  • Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. 2 vols. Translated by John Byam Shaw. Oxford, 1942: 1:no. 243; 2:repro.

1948

  • Rosenberg, Jakob. Rembrandt. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA, 1948: 1:242.

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. Washington, 1948: 37, repro., as by Rembrandt van Ryn.

1959

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. Reprint. Washington, DC, 1959: 37, repro., as by Rembrandt.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963: 312, repro., as by Rembrandt van Rijn.

1965

  • National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 110, as by Rembrandt.

1966

  • Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt Gemälde. Berlin, 1966: 47, no. 243.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 98, repro., as by Rembrandt.

1969

  • Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings. Revised by Horst Gerson. 3rd ed. London, 1969: repro. 539, 568, no. 243.

  • National Gallery of Art. Rembrandt in the National Gallery of Art: Commemorating the tercentenary of the artist's death. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1969: 18, no. 7, repro.

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. European paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Washington, 1975: 288, repro., as by Rembrandt.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 334, repro.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 336-338, repro. 337.

Wikidata ID

Q20177357

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