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Lot Essay
Formerly regarded as a self-portrait by variously Rembrandt and Lievens, Professor Werner Sumowski more recently recognised this as an early work by Isaac de Joudreville. He compares it stylistically with the Portrait of a young woman in the Kunstmuseum Atheneum, Helsinki, and the Portrait of a young man in a fur-lined gown in the Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Augsburg, both datable to the beginning of the 1630s.
The artist, the son of a Leiden innkeeper, was one of Rembrandt's earliest pupils, from 1629 to 1631. Along with Gerrit Dou, Willem de Poorter, Jacob de Wet and, possibly, Jacques de Rousseau, he was apprenticed to Rembrandt when the latter was still working in Leiden; Rembrandt's close professional - and stylistic - affiliation at that time with Jan Lievens is well documented, and explains why the present picture has been at times attributed to both masters. During the last year of his apprenticeship, de Jouderville travelled to Amsterdam with Rembrandt; although he enrolled as a student of philosophy at Leiden University in 1632, it may well be that he remained in Amsterdam to assist Rembrandt with his numerous portrait commissions. De Jouderville himself painted mainly Rembrandtesque heads or 'tronies' and continued to paint so closely in his master's style, that others of his works have in the past been confused with those of his teacher (for example the Minerva in the Studio in the Art Museum, Denver, Colorado).
The artist, the son of a Leiden innkeeper, was one of Rembrandt's earliest pupils, from 1629 to 1631. Along with Gerrit Dou, Willem de Poorter, Jacob de Wet and, possibly, Jacques de Rousseau, he was apprenticed to Rembrandt when the latter was still working in Leiden; Rembrandt's close professional - and stylistic - affiliation at that time with Jan Lievens is well documented, and explains why the present picture has been at times attributed to both masters. During the last year of his apprenticeship, de Jouderville travelled to Amsterdam with Rembrandt; although he enrolled as a student of philosophy at Leiden University in 1632, it may well be that he remained in Amsterdam to assist Rembrandt with his numerous portrait commissions. De Jouderville himself painted mainly Rembrandtesque heads or 'tronies' and continued to paint so closely in his master's style, that others of his works have in the past been confused with those of his teacher (for example the Minerva in the Studio in the Art Museum, Denver, Colorado).