Art experts in the Netherlands on Thursday unveiled an oil painting by the famous Dutch master Rembrandt, believed to be a fake after it had languished in a forgotten corner of a museum for a century. .
An oil painting of “The Raising of the Cross” from the 1640s was long believed to be the work of a follower of the 17th-century master, who painted “The Night Watch” and “Dr. Nicholas Tulip.” Known for famous works like “Anatomy Lesson”. .
But now at the Breides Museum in The Hague, where the sketch has been on display since it was purchased in 1921, thanks to new scientific techniques it was actually painted by Rembrandt.
“The quality of the details is so well done that I believe it’s a Rembrandt,” said Johanneke Verhave, who restored the sketch.
He studied the artwork with Jeroen Gultij, the former chief curator of old paintings at Rotterdam’s Boijmans van Beuningen Museum who first “rediscovered” him about a year ago while researching a book on Rembrandt.
“I saw this work over and over again. On the brushstrokes. They are wonderful,” Giltage told JEE News.
He said that “just a few broad brush strokes” convinced him that the sketch was indeed the real article.
The artwork was first purchased by the museum’s original curator, Abraham Bredius, in 1921. He also believed that the sketch was an original Rembrandt.
But over the years, art experts dismissed it as a “crude imitation.”
Giltige revisited the outline of his “Big Book of Rembrandt Paintings,” which includes all 684 works by the Dutch master.
“When I was looking at it, I thought Brades was right. I think it’s really a Rembrandt,” he said.
‘Not a Copy’
One of the main arguments by art experts for the sketch being an imitation was the seemingly undetailed brush strokes on the canvas.
“You have to remember, this is an oil sketch. Rembrandt is usually very precise and refined, but this is very rough,” Giltaij said.
“The reason is the oil sketch is a preparatory sketch for another painting. He wants to show the composition, a rough idea of what the actual painting could look like,” he said.
The sketch also harked back to a 1633 Rembrandt painting also entitled “The Raising of the Cross” which now hangs in the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich.
Restorer Verhave said infrared reflectography and X-ray scans were made of the sketch, revealing interesting elements.
“The research shows that the sketch has several changes made by the artist himself while painting, meaning that its composition was a creative process.”
“This means the painter was changing his mind while he was working. He was clearly not copying another painting,” she said.
The research also showed the way the painter handled his brush matched that of the great master.
The two experts’ research was sent to Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, which conducted its own analysis.
“Regarding the use of materials, the researchers at the Rijksmuseum however did not find anything to contradict an attribution to Rembrandt,” the Bredius museum said.
