(THE HAGUE) Dutch art experts said on Thursday that an oil sketch, long considered an imitation and forgotten in a corner of a museum in The Hague, was in fact a work by Rembrandt.
Posted at 2:19 p.m.
The oil sketch The Raising of the Cross which dates from the 1640s, has long been considered to be the work of a disciple of the master of the XVIIe century.
But new research carried out jointly with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, using new scientific techniques, has enabled the Bredius Museum in The Hague, where the sketch has been on display since its purchase in 1921, to determine that it had indeed been made by Rembrandt himself.
“The quality of detail is so well done that I am convinced it is a Rembrandt,” said Johanneke Verhave, who restored the sketch.
She studied the work with Jeroen Giltaij, former chief curator of ancient paintings at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, who first ‘discovered’ it while researching for a book on Rembrandt about a year ago. .
“I have watched this work over and over again. The brush strokes. They are brilliant,” Giltaij told AFP. It was these “broad brushstrokes” that convinced him that the sketch was indeed a real Rembrandt.
The work was bought by the first curator of the museum in The Hague, Abraham Bredius, in 1921. Mr. Bredius was convinced that he had acquired a real Rembrandt.
But over the years, many art experts have called it a crude imitation. A theory refuted by Mr. Giltaij.
“Seeing her, I thought Bredius was right. I think it is indeed a Rembrandt,” he observes.
“Not a copy”
According to the observations of some art experts, the brushstrokes were not detailed enough to be a real Rembrandt.
“Remember this is an oil sketch. Rembrandt is usually very precise and refined, but this is very rough,” observes Giltaij.
“The reason is that the oil sketch is a preparatory sketch for another painting. He wants to show the composition, a rough idea of what the actual painting might look like,” he said.
The sketch is strongly reminiscent of a painting by Rembrandt in 1633, also titled The lifting of the crossnow on display at the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich.
Infrared reflectography and X-ray scans were performed on the sketch, revealing interesting observations, says Johanneke Verhave.
“Research shows that the sketch has several modifications made by the artist himself while painting, which means that its composition was a creative process”, raises Mme Verhave.
“It means that the author changed his mind while he was working. He was clearly not copying another painting,” she observes.
The new research has also shown that the way the author handled his brush did indeed correspond to that of the great master.
The research of the two experts was sent to the Rijksmuseum, which then carried out its own analysis.
“Regarding the use of materials, researchers at the Rijksmuseum have found nothing to contradict an attribution to Rembrandt,” the Bredius Museum said.