Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts Moscow Evgeny Gavrilov 1993 Purchase Book

The early history of Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves and Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan [fig. i] [fig. ane] Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan, c. 1656/1658, oil on canvas transferred to sail, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection, 1942.9.68 is shrouded in mystery, although it seems likely that they were the pair of portraits by Rembrandt listed in the Gerard Hoet auction in The Hague in 1760. [1] [ane]
This entry text was written for the pair of paintings Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves and Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan .
They had entered the Yusupov drove past 1803, when the German language traveler Heinrich von Reimers saw them during his visit to the family's palace in Saint petersburg, then located on the Fontanka River. [2] [2]
Heinrich Christoph von Reimers, Leningrad, am Ende seines Ersten Jahrhunderts, ii vols. (Saint Petersburg, 1805), 2:373. Prince Nicolai Borisovich Yusupov (1751–1831) acquired the core of this collection on three extended trips to Europe during the late eighteenth century. In 1827 he commissioned an unpublished 5-book catalog of the paintings, sculptures, and other treasures (withal in the family unit archives at the Arkhangelskoye Country Museum & Manor outside Moscow) that included a description as well as a pen-and-ink sketch of each object. The portraits hung in the "Salon des Antiques." His only son and heir, Prince Boris Nicolaievich Yusupov (1794–1849), published a catalog of the drove in French in 1839. [three] [three]
Frederick R. Andresen, through his colleague Evgeny Maksakov, kindly provided the NGA library with a photocopy of this catalogue (Musée du Prince Youssoupoff [Saint Petersburg, 1839]). See also: Oleg Yakovlevich Neverov, Bang-up Private Collections of Royal Russia (New York and Leningrad, 2004), 89–98. An 1864 publication by the director of the Berlin Museum, Gustav Waagen, included a discussion of the Yusupov collection, and his comment about the pair of Rembrandt portraits, that they were "von ausserordentlicher Energie" (of boggling energy), was the offset of many subsequent positive responses to these works. [4] [4]
Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Die Gemäldesammlung in der kaiserlichen Ermitage zu Saint petersburg nebst Bemerkungen über andere dortige Kunstsammlungen (Munich, 1864), 414: "Ein männliches und ein weibliches Bildniss, fast Kniestücke. Pendants. Von ausserordentlicher Energie. Der kühle Ton der Lichter, wie der Schatten. die sehr breite Behandlung, beweisen, dass diese Bilder der spateren Zeit angehören." The Rembrandt paintings were not mentioned in Louis Viardot, Les musées d'Allemagne et de Russie (Paris, 1844); still, equally Viardot only listed a few works, many of which were the same equally those discussed past Waagen some twenty years later (see Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Die Gemäldesammlung in der kaiserlichen Ermitage zu St. Petersburg nebst Bemerkungen über andere dortige Kunstsammlungen [Munich, 1864]), one wonders if he saw the total drove. Co-ordinate to later on reports, the family had ever been quite reluctant to show off their treasures, so it is possible that Viardot was not given access to them. An article on Joseph Widener's acquisition of the paintings (American Art News 20 [December 10, 1921], 4) quoted a London Times article in which information technology was written that: "The gramps of the present Prince was a man of parsimonious disposition who guarded his picture gallery from all ordinary mortals and sightseers. At a ball given in the palace to the Royal Courtroom, Czar Alexander 3 wished to see the Rembrandts. Prince Youssoupoff (sic) personally conducted the czar and two Grand Dukes to encounter his gallery but kept out all other guests." Peter A. B. Widener (Joseph Widener's son, given his grandfather's proper noun), Without Drums (New York, 1940), 61, writes that the czar was allowed to see the drove just after he ordered Youssoupoff to unlock his pic gallery. Did the prince fear a request by the czar to transfer some of the paintings to the imperial collection at the Hermitage?

The paintings remained secluded and unavailable to nigh Americans and Europeans until they were shown at the great Rembrandt exhibition in Amsterdam in 1898. There they made a tremendous bear upon. [5] [5]
The London Times (September 15, 1898), for example, described "the immortal, unchanging interest" of these two portraits. See Catherine B. Scallen, Rembrandt, Reputation, and the Practice of Connoisseurship (Amsterdam, 2004), 136, who cites the comments of the art critic Jan Veth, who considered these portraits "true touchstones for questions of authenticity, with their cute execution and powerful chiaroscuro." Past 1911, when Roger Fry reviewed a publication describing an exhibition of one-time chief paintings from Russian individual collections held in Saint Petersburg in 1909, he singled out these portraits every bit follows: "In that location are, it is truthful, many interesting and curious works, just very few masterpieces—none indeed of the first rank, if nosotros except the already well-known Rembrandt portraits of the Youssoupoff collection. These, indeed, are of unsurpassed dazzler; the woman especially must count, I retrieve, among the greatest of all Rembrandt creations." [6] [half-dozen]
Roger Fry, "Review and Notices," The Burlington Mag 19 (September 1911): 353.

For those who had not had the opportunity to view the paintings in Amsterdam in 1898, engravings of the works in the commemorative book of that exhibition or in Dr. Wilhelm von Bode's monumental catalog of Rembrandt's paintings, published in 1902, provided splendid visual images. [7] [7]
Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, "Die Rembrandt-Ausstellungen zu Amsterdam (September–October 1898) und zu London (Jan–March 1899)," Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 22 (1899), nos. 34–35. Wilhelm von Bode assisted by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, The Consummate Work of Rembrandt, trans. Florence Simmonds, 8 vols. (Paris, 1897–1906), 7: nos. 489–490. The loftier quality of the reproductions in Bode'south publication was remarked upon by Roger Fry in 1921 when he had the occasion to publish photographs of the paintings in his article,  "Two Rembrandt Portraits," The Burlington Magazine 38 (May 1921): 210. Perhaps it was through Bode's publication that the paintings became known to Peter A. B. Widener, who, co-ordinate to his grandson, made a special endeavour to visit Saint Petersburg to see these two works. Widener apparently managed to come across the paintings, probably in 1909, even though Prince Felix Yusupov was reluctant to testify them to visitors. "The infinitesimal [Widener] saw them, he wanted them. He made an offer, just it was promptly rejected. . . . He was very much disappointed." [8] [8]
Peter A. B. Widener, Without Drums (New York, 1940), 60–64. The date of Widener's purported trip is not known. His grandson writes that he went to Russian federation "around the turn of the century." According to Dr. Ronald Moe (author of Prelude to the Revolution: The Murder of Rasputin [Chula Vista, CA, 2011]), a more probable appointment is 1909, the year the Kiel Canal opened, which would have provided access to Petrograd for Widener's yacht Josephine. In that year also the paintings were on public exhibition in Petrograd for the first fourth dimension since existence lent to Amsterdam in 1898. The "Prince Yusupov" with whom the negotiations were carried out during those years was Felix, count Sumarokov-Elston (1856–1928), hubby of Princess Zinaide Yusupova, the concluding surviving representative of the Yusupov family. He was given the right to accept his wife's proper noun and title, but the art collection was actually hers.

Peter A. B. Widener had not as yet developed into the remarkable collector of Rembrandt paintings he was to become, but it was clear that these works made a lasting impression on him. Later having been rebuffed by Yusupov, Widener turned to his London dealer, Arthur J. Sulley, to enquire him to find a style to convince the prince to part with his treasures. On April 7, 1911, Sulley wrote to Widener saying that he would try to approach Yusupov in the same way that he had approached the Marquis of Lansdowne apropos Rembrandt's The Manufacturing plant: "That is to say that my friend is getting an introduction to the owner from ane of his personal friends, and is trying to become him to name a toll. If the owner volition non name whatsoever price, I propose (if you concord) to offer him one million rubles, which is about £100,000." [9] [9]
Letter in NGA curatorial files. Plain, though, negotiations proved to be more hard than Sulley had expected; in a subsequent letter of May 12, 1911, he wrote to Peter's son, Joseph Widener, that "as far as it is possible to empathize annihilation if anyone gets the Russians we will but as I wrote you final week it is very hard. I do not think Agnew or anyone else is working at that business organization now. It has been tried and so oftentimes without success that people are discouraged. If I do not succeed it will not be considering I accept left any stone unturned." [10] [10]
Letter of the alphabet in NGA curatorial files. Sulley may indeed accept traveled to Petrograd to endeavour to arrange for the purchase prior to the start of World State of war I in 1914. An article in American Art News xx (December 17, 1921), four, says that "the belatedly P. A. B. Widener earlier the war sent an emissary to Russia and bundled for their buy, the toll being $500,000. Prince Youssoupoff backed out of the deal by cable, after the emissary had returned to England." The elder Widener died in 1915 without having succeeded in purchasing the paintings.

Although the attraction of Widener's money did not in and of itself convince Prince Yusupov to sell his paintings, these offers clearly pointed out to him the immense value collectors placed upon his two Rembrandt portraits. Thus, when the Russian Revolution forced the Prince'south family to leave Russia, his son, Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov (1887–1967), took with him, among other personal possessions and family jewels, the two Rembrandt paintings. [eleven] [11]
Felix Felixovich, according to Dr. Moe, was a student at Oxford from 1909 to 1912. He was not given  the championship Prince Yusupov until 1914. When the younger Yusupov, notorious as the assassin of Rasputin, arrived in London in Apr 1919, stories of his dramatic escape chop-chop spread, enhancing the entreatment of the Rembrandt paintings. [12] [12]
According to Dr. Moe and Dr. Idris R. Traylor (who, before his decease, was researching the Yusupov family for a planned book), the Yusupov family sailed from Yalta in the Crimea on the British warship Marlborough, which had been sent past Male monarch George V to accept his aunt, the Dowager Empress Maria Federovna, to London in April 1919. Yusupov and his wife disembarked in Republic of malta and traveled via Brindisi and Paris to London. The report by Sir Francis Pridham, a British naval officer who participated in the evacuation (Shut of a Dynasty [London, 1956]), includes a photograph of young Felix Yusupov aboard the Marlborough. Contemporary reports about Yusupov's escape from Russia, however, raise the possibility that he may have dramatized the circumstances of his flight. Charles John Holmes, Self and Partners (Mostly Cocky): Being the Reminiscences of C. J. Holmes (New York, 1936), 376, writes, for example: "In 1919 Prince Youssoupoff suddenly appeared with his ii famous Rembrandt portraits, still concealed by the 'Modernist' canvases under which he had contrived to bring them out of Russian federation. Thrilling equally was his account of the death of Rasputin, the story of his own escape, in the disguise of an art student, with the family jewels swathed around his body in long, painful bondage, was no less vivid. Trying indeed must the moment have been when a kommissar, much interested in the arts, took a fancy to ane of the Prince'southward first experiments in painting, and wanted to buy it, in ignorance of the fact that it covered a Rembrandt masterpiece." Variants of this story appeared in news reports in 1921 (see NGA curatorial files). The artist who painted over the 2 Rembrandt paintings was a friend of Yusupov, Gleb W. Derujinsky, who later immigrated to the United States and became a successful sculptor. I would like to thank Andrea Derujinsky for providing me with biographical information about her grandfather and his relationship to Yusupov (personal communication, July 2013). Yusupov sought to exploit his circumstances past offer the paintings for sale at extraordinary prices. Newspapers reported an request price of £500,000.

In the fall of 1920, Joseph Due east. Widener (a collector in his ain correct, besides as caretaker of his father's drove) received a letter from a Mr. Harold Hartley offering him Yusupov's paintings for £210,000. Hartley indicated that the prince preferred to sell to an "approved heir-apparent" rather than to a dealer, and also mentioned that the "Prince considers both paintings far superior to 'The Mill' and of greater value." [13] [13]
Letter, Oct 20, 1920, in NGA curatorial files. Patently Widener did non concord to the price, for on July 26, 1921, he received a alphabetic character from Francis Tarbox offering him the paintings. "These are beingness offered for sale at a very depression greenbacks price and I am in a position to negotiate same at much lower figure than they can ever again be obtained." [14] [14]
Letter in NGA curatorial files.

Joseph Widener arrived in London during the summer of 1921 and examined the paintings in a bank vault where they were being kept equally collateral for a loan to the prince. Perhaps totally in expert faith, or perchance as a way to purchase the paintings for a lower price, Widener offered to pay the prince £100,000 with the stipulation that Yusupov could repurchase them within three years at eight percent interest should his fiscal state of affairs improve to the betoken where he could once over again "keep and personally enjoy these wonderful works of fine art." [15] [xv]
Samuel N. Behrman, Duveen (New York, 1952), 18 (besides 1972 ed., 16). According to Dr. Moe, Behrman's implication that Yusupov's reacquisition of the paintings was contingent upon a restoration of the quondam regime in Russia is inaccurate. A cable from Joseph Widener dated September 19, 1922, says that the purchase contract "provides that re-purchase tin can exist made only for Prince Youssoupoffs [sic] personal enjoyment of the pictures and that I am to receive satisfactory assurances and guarantees that pictures or title to same will not pass out of his possession for ten year period." The cable is in the Duveen Brothers records, accretion number 960015, Enquiry Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 383, box 528, folder 4 (see as well copies in NGA curatorial files). Afterward a serial of negotiations, including transatlantic cables, Yusupov agreed, and the paintings were shipped to Lynnewood Hall with much public acclamation. The £100,000 was paid to the prince past Widener's London amanuensis, Arthur J. Sulley, some ten years after the dealer had begun negotiations to acquire them for Widener's father.

The story of Joseph Widener'south acquisition of these boggling paintings does not, even so, end with the events of 1921. Shortly after Widener acquired them, the collector Calouste Gulbenkian was told past the dealer Joseph Duveen that he had "but lost the ii best Rembrandts in the world to Widener. He bought them both for a hundred one thousand pounds, and each of them is worth that." [16] [xvi]
Samuel North. Behrman, Duveen (New York, 1952), 18 (also 1972 ed., 16). Gulbenkian, knowing of Widener'south organisation with Yusupov, then offered to lend the prince £200,000 to allow him to reestablish his financial position, an offer Yusupov found hard to resist. He thus tried to force Widener to return the paintings. Widener refused, and from this ensued a notorious lawsuit in 1924–1925 over the nature of the organization between Widener and Yusupov. Eventually, the case was decided in Widener'south favor, and the paintings remained, along with The Mill, at the core of the drove of Rembrandts at Lynnewood Hall, the Widener manor in Elkins Park exterior Philadelphia. [17] [17]
Transcripts from the trial (kindly provided by Frederick Andresen) and copies of the newspaper coverage of information technology by the New York Times are in NGA curatorial files. Run across also Samuel N. Behrman, Duveen (New York, 1952), 22–24 (also 1972 ed., twenty); John Walker, Self-Portrait with Donors: Confessions of an Art Collector (Boston and Toronto, 1974), 244.

Neither painting appears to exist signed or dated, although Valentiner in his 1931 catalog of the Widener Collection noted that the portrait of the woman was signed, "Rembrandt f. 166' [the final effigy illegible]." [18] [eighteen]
Pictures in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1931), 74–77. Dates given to the paintings take all been in the 1660s. When the portraits were exhibited in Amsterdam in 1898, they were dated c. 1660. Bode placed them c. 1662 in his catalog of 1902. Valentiner redated the paintings in 1921 to c. 1668, probably considering he tried to place the figures as Rembrandt's son Titus and Magdalena van Loo, who were married in that year. [19] [19]
Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: wiedergefundene Gemälde (1910–1920), Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben, 27 (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921), 484–485. Although Valentiner'due south identification establish little approval, a date of c. 1667 was retained for the paintings in the itemize of the Widener Collection of 1923. Valentiner revised his dating to the outset half of the 1660s in his 1931 publication. [20] [twenty]
Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Rembrandt Paintings in America (New York, 1931), nos. 171–172. Valentiner dates them "slightly later paintings dated 1662." Bredius, however, returned to the c. 1667 dating in his 1935 edition of Rembrandt'southward paintings, [21] [21]
Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt, Schilderijen (Vienna, 1935), no. 327, fourteen note. a dating that was followed by Bauch and Gerson. [22] [22]
Kurt Bauch, Rembrandt Gemälde (Berlin, 1966), nos. 446 and 528, 23 note 446, 26 notation 528; Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: The Consummate Edition of the Paintings, revised by Horst Gerson (London, 1969), 255, 313, 575 annotation 327, 582 note 402.

I exception to the consistently belatedly dates given the paintings since the 1930s occurred in the catalog of the Rembrandt exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in 1969. Hither it is noted that neither the costumes nor the painting techniques indicate such a late date for the works. [23] [23]
Rembrandt in the National Gallery of Fine art (Washington, 1969), 25. Although these observations are not elaborated upon, the suggestion for an earlier dating than traditionally suggested is a valid one. The woman's hairstyle, costume, and utilise of ornate jewelry are all datable to the 1650s rather than to the late 1660s. The translucent lace collar that covers her shoulders and whose elaborate lower edge continues horizontally across her torso is seen in a number of portraits from this menstruum, including Abraham del Court and His Wife Maria de Kaersgieter, 1654, by Bartholomeus van der Helst (c. 1613–1670 [fig. 2] [fig. 2] Bartholomeus van der Helst, Abraham del Court and His Wife Maria de Kaersgieter, 1654, oil on sail, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Photo: Studio Tromp, Rotterdam , and Portrait of a Young Woman, 1656, past Isaak Luttichuys (1616–1673) (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). [24] [24]
See inventory no. C1477, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Finally, the plain white cuffs edged with lace are similar to those in Rembrandt'south A Woman Holding a Pink of 1656. Also similar in these examples is the manner in which the neckband is attached past an ornate bow and decorated with a round pin or pendant.

The hairstyle and costume of the homo are more than difficult to date than are those of the woman, partly considering the collar and cuffs have been contradistinct (see Technical Summary). [25] [25]
Pierre Paul von Weiner et al., Les anciennes écoles de peinture dans les palais et collections privées Russes (Brussels, 1910), 8, lament the damage that had occurred to the Yusupov paintings every bit a effect of poor restoration: "Cette collection est restée intacte, on plutôt seulement complète, car la restauration du professeur Prakhoff y causa tout récemment united nations dommage irréparable: united nations certain nombre de toiles . . . en a cruellement souffert." Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann (letter January eight, 1985, NGA curatorial files) has kindly provided information almost the twentieth-century restoration: "I spoke with C. F. Louis de Wild who checked his notes. The paintings were brought to his male parent's home past Duveen in 1922. His father was mortally sick at the fourth dimension, and only cleaned the man, with the help of his son (Louis), but did not retouch, inpaint or complete the restoration in whatsoever mode. Louis does non recollect what the painting looked like at the time. The adult female was non touched. What this means is that De Wild Sr. and Jr. started cleaning the man in 1922, then gave up because of personal circumstances. Neither he nor I know who did carry out the cleaning." To judge from the X-radiographs ( [fig. three] [fig. 3] X-radiograph composite, Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Chapeau and Gloves, c. 1656/1658, oil on canvass transferred to canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection, 1942.ix.67 )  [see X-radiography A photographic or digital image analysis method that visually records an object's ability to absorb or transmit ten-rays. The differential absorption design is useful for examining an object's internal structure as well as for comparison the variation in pigment types. ], the simple rectangular shape of the collar the human originally wore was also comparable to styles in the mid-1650s. After the early 1660s, fashions changed, and men began to clothing collars that extended further down their chest (run across, for case, Portrait of a Human being in a Tall Lid ). But when Rembrandt provided the sitter with a more decorative lace collar is non known, simply the alteration probably occurred in the late 1650s. [26] [26]
The billowing cuffs are more elaborate than the normal apartment cuffs, simply they do resemble those seen in Bartholomeus van der Helst'due south Portrait of a Beau, 1655 (Toledo Museum of Fine art), inventory no. 76.12; run across The Toledo Museum of Art: European Paintings (Toledo, Ohio, 1976), 247, no. 101, repro.

Costume styles are usually only a rough measurement of date because old styles were frequently worn after new ones were introduced, especially by older and more than conservative people. These sitters, however, appear to exist in their belatedly thirties or early forties, and, judging from the woman's jewelry, wealthy. It seems unlikely that they would have had themselves portrayed in outmoded fashions, which, on the basis of costume analysis, would suggest a date for these portraits in the mid-to-late 1650s.

Stylistically, such a appointment for these paintings is also compatible with Rembrandt's other works. In no painting of his from the mid-1660s does one detect the careful modeling of the woman's hands and confront, the suggestions of texture as seen in her features, jewelry, and lace, or the broad planar way in which forms are illuminated by the low-cal. No hint of the palette pocketknife is to exist found in either work. Similarities of style and technique, withal, do be in paintings from the tardily 1650s, in particular betwixt the woman and Rembrandt's portrait of Catherine Hooghsaet, signed and dated 1657 (Penrhyn Castle, Wales). [27] [27]
Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings, revised past Horst Gerson (London, 1969), no. 391, repro. The left hand of each sitter, for example, is depicted in a similar manner.

The portrait of the human being is more boldly executed than that of the woman in that the modeling does not have the same restrained, planar quality. Brushstrokes on the man's face are broken and roughly juxtaposed as Rembrandt modeled his sharply illuminated features with sure strokes of varying tones of pinks and ochers. The boldness of Rembrandt's touch originally must have been even more than pronounced, for X-radiographs demonstrate that both of the man's cuffs and hands were more abstractly rendered than they now appear. The fact that the gloves held past the gentleman in his left manus are cut at the bottom edge of the composition suggests that the paintings were in one case slightly larger. I could imagine that the figures were initially situated in a more than spacious setting, which suggests that they have been trimmed on all sides.  The dimensions of the pendant portraits in the Hoet sale of 1760 loosely correspond to the paintings' current sizes, so any reduction in size must accept occurred at an earlier date. [28] [28]
Gerard Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderijen..., 2 vols. (The Hague, 1752), with supplement by Pieter Terwesten (1770) (reprint, Soest, 1976), iii:225, nos. 49 and 50, where they are described as being "hoog 39, breet 30 ½ duimen."

The bold manner with which Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Lid and Gloves is executed is related to Rembrandt's painting technique in male portraits of the late 1650s. In earlier portraits, such as January Half dozen, 1654 [fig. 4] [fig. 4] Rembrandt van Rijn, January Six, 1654, oil on canvas, Six Drove, Amsterdam , Rembrandt firmly modeled the face with similar short, bold strokes, just his approach in these 2 instances is slightly different. Whereas the short strokes in the face of the Six portrait join to grade distinct planes of light and color, those in the Washington portrait are more than roughly executed and loosely blended. In this respect they approach the technique he used in his A Swain Seated at a Table (possibly Govaert Flinck) , which dates to c. 1660. Particularly close in these two portraits are the techniques used to model the olfactory organ, where strokes from the mankind tones are drawn over a darker color that defines the adumbral border of the nostril. Similar techniques occur in the shadowed areas effectually the eyes [fig. five] [fig. 5] Item of eyes, Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves, c. 1656/1658, oil on canvas transferred to canvass, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection, 1942.9.67 and [fig. 6] [fig. vi] Particular of eyes, Rembrandt van Rijn, A Young Man Seated at a Table (perhaps Govaert Flinck), c. 1660, oil on canvass, National Gallery of Fine art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.77 .

An unusual technical feature reinforces the probability that Rembrandt executed these ii portraits in the late 1650s: they were both originally painted on a herringbone-weave canvas, a support Rembrandt is not known to have used before in his career. The paintings were removed from these supports and transferred onto finely woven canvases. Presumably, this transfer was fabricated in Russian federation in the nineteenth century. [29] [29]
Inscribed in Russian on the dorsum of the Portrait of a Gentleman with a Alpine Hat and Gloves is: "Painting transferred from an erstwhile sheet onto a new sheet. I. Sidorov." Translation kindly made past Dauphine Sloan.

There seems piddling question that these works were conceived as companion portraits. Not only were they together in the Yusupov collection by the outset of the nineteenth century, just the poses assumed by the figures are comparable to those in pendant paintings by other masters. Sir Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599 - 1641), for example, painted pendant portraits of Peeter Stevens and Anna Wake in 1627 and 1628 (Mauritshuis, The Hague), in which Stevens gestures to his bride, who holds an ostrich-feather fan in her paw. [xxx] [30]
Come across inventory nos. 239, 240, Mauritshuis, The Hague. Discussed by Wheelock in Arthur Grand. Wheelock Jr. et al., Anthony van Dyck (Washington, 1990), 196–200. In 1641 Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck (Dutch, 1606/1609 - 1662) painted a standing couple in much the same mode: he holding his gloves (Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede), [31] [31]
See inventory no. 515, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede. she an ostrich-plume fan (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). [32] [32]
See inventory no. A3064, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. For both, see Rudolf E. O. Ekkart, Johannes Cornelisz. Verspronck (Haarlem, 1979), 158, no. 32, repro., 161, no. 33, repro. In Rembrandt's portraits the subtle interaction of the two, he gesturing toward her while looking at the viewer and she glancing in his direction and holding the fan so that it inclines toward him, is restrained yet poignant. Their expressions have qualities of warmth and trust that convey much about the nature of human relationships.

The question that remains unanswered is the identity of the sitters. The circle of wealthy friends and acquaintances at that period of Rembrandt's life who might have ordered portraits was rather small. Valentiner's hypothesis that they represented Rembrandt's son Titus and his wife, Magdalena van Loo, has long since been rejected. A proffer past Dr. I. H. van Eeghen that they stand for Jacob Louysz Trip (1636–1664) and his wife, Margarita Hendricksdr Trip (1637–1711), is doubtful. [33] [33]
I. H. van Eeghen, "De familie Trip en het Trippenhuis," in Het Trippenhuis te Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Oxford, and New York, 1983), 71–73, 121 annotation 105. Van Eeghen's premise was primarily that the Trip family unit was one of the few rich families in Amsterdam that connected to requite portrait commissions to Rembrandt during his later years. Nevertheless, these sitters appear to be in their late thirties or early forties and non in their twenties, as Jacob and Margarita would accept been in the belatedly 1650s. [34] [34]
Henriette Rahusen  has suggested (personal communication, 2010) that the man bears bang-up similarity to Aernout van der Mye (c. 1625–1681), the 2d man from the left in Rembrandt'due south Syndics of the Cloth Drapers' Club (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, on loan from the city of Amsterdam, see the entry on Portrait of a Man in a Tall Lid , fig. 1), which the master executed in 1662. Aernout van der Mye was a Roman Catholic cloth merchant whose home on the Nieuwendijk 186 housed one of Amsterdam's "hidden" Catholic churches in 1656.  If the male sitter proves to be Van der Mye, Lady with the Ostrich-Feather Fan would exist a portrait of his wife, Johanna Vloots. For information on Van der Mye, see S. A. C. Dudok van Heel, Van Amsterdamse Burgers tot Europese Aristocraten, 2 vols. (The Hague, 2008), one:303. None of these possible identities tin can, notwithstanding, be verified, which is particularly unfortunate because and so trivial is known about Rembrandt'south patrons at this stage of his career.

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

April 24, 2014

abbottobselp.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.1206.html