Portrait of a Man, after Rembrandt

The present drawing is after Rembrandt's drawing in a New York private collection. Josi drew this, possibly while the Rembrandt drawing was in the Aylesford Collection, in preparation for a group of prints that was published in 1821 with the posthumous second edition of Cornelis Ploos van Amstel's series of prints Collection d'imitations de dessins... (T. Laurentius, J.W. Niemeijer, G. Ploos van Amstel, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, 1726-1798, Kunstverzamelaar en prentuitgever, Assen, 1980, p. 289, no. 72). Rembrandt's drawing was at that time described as a selfportrait. A picture by Pieter Christoffel Wonder (1780-1852) dated 1826, in the Fondation Custodia, Paris, shows Rembrandt's drawing being studied by a man, thought to be Josi (M. van Berge-Gerbaud, W. Niemeijer and others, Morceaux Choisis parmi les acquisitions de la Collection Frits Lugt realisées sous le directorat de Carlos van Hasselt, 1970/1994, Paris, 1996, p. 272, no. 130, illustrated). Himself an art dealer and collector of Rembrandt drawings, Josi studied in London under John Raphael Smith in 1791. Back in Holland later, he returned to London in 1819, where he died in 1828.