Inscription
center right: Rembrandt 166[?]
Provenance
Possibly acquired between 1768 and 1772 by Gustaf Adolf Sparre [1746-1794], Sahlgren-Sparre Palace, Göteborg, and, after 1775, Kulla Gunnarstorp Castle, near Helsingborg, Sweden; by inheritance to his wife, Elisabet Sofia Amalia Beata Sparre [née Ramel, 1753-1830], Kulla Gunnarstorp Castle; by inheritance to her grandson, Gustaf Adolf Frederik De la Gardie [1800-1833], Kulla Gunnarstorp Castle; by inheritance to his father, Jacob Gustaf De la Gardie [1768-1842], Kulla Gunnarstorp Castle; sold a few years after 1837 [when De Geer had purchased Kulla Gunnarstorp Castle] with the entire Sparre collection to Carl De Geer of Leustra [1781-1861]; placed 1855 into a family trust under care of his granddaughter, Elizabeth Wachtmeister [née von Platen, 1834-1918], Castle Wanås, near Kristianstad, Sweden;[1] sold 1926 by the Wachtmeister Trust to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold December 1926 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.
Associated Names
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Gardie, Adolf de la
Gardie, Jacob, Count de la
Geer, Carl, Count de
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Mellon, Andrew W.
Sparre, Gustaf Adolf
Sparre, Gustav Adolf, Mrs.
Wachtmeister, Carl, Count
Wachtmeister, Elizabeth, Countess
Technical Summary
The support, a medium-weight, plain-weave fabric, has been lined with the original tacking margins trimmed. A row of later tacking holes along the left and top edges of the original support suggests a prior reduction in size, although cusping at right and bottom indicates that the present dimensions are close to or slightly smaller than the original dimensions. The double ground consists of a thick, red brown lower layer followed by a slightly thinner gray-tan layer.[1] The paint was applied in two stages over the gray-tan upper ground.[2] Rembrandt laid in the figure with broad strokes in black for the garment, and brighter paints for the accents and the skin color. While the facial features were worked out with some detail, the first paint strokes for the hands were quite sketchy and with some different details. The paint was applied as dry to fluid pastes, with glazes and scumbles, occasionally incised with the butt end of a brush. Brushstrokes have been worked wet-into-wet or drawn over dry impasto to create texture, although a past lining procedure has flattened the texture. The X-radiographs show changes in both hands, with the proper right hand loosely sketched and the proper left hand either lower or reconfigured, or both. The X-radiographs also show that the sitter’s white collar originally covered part of the sitter’s face, on the proper right side of his chin.
Large complex tears in the original support fabric are found in the lower right background and between the hands. Paint loss is confined to the tears and the edges, where sections of the original fabric have been torn away. There is some abrasion in the black garment, especially in the sitter’s sleeves and vest, where a long tear is located. The painting was treated in 2001-2002, at which time discolored varnish and inpainting were removed.
[1] The ground was analyzed by the NGA Scientific Research department using cross-sections (see report dated May 15, 2002, in NGA Conservation department files). An additional sample was analyzed by Karin Groen using energy dispersive X-ray analysis (see Karin Groen, "Grounds in Rembrandt’s Workshop and in Paintings by His Contemporaries," in Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4, Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering [Dordrecht, 2005]. 668–669).
[2] The painting’s structure was confirmed by analysis of cross-sections. The analysis was performed by the NGA Scientific Research department (see report dated May 15, 2002, in NGA Conservation department files).
