PROPERTY FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, SOLD TO BENEFIT THE EUROPEAN PAINTINGS ACQUISITIONS FUND

Circle of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam)

A young woman in an interior

Details

Circle of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam)
A young woman in an interior
oil on panel
17 x 13 7/8 in. (43.1 x 35.2 cm.)

Provenance

(Possibly) Six Collection, Amsterdam (according to a label on the reverse).
Dr. Leroy d'Étiolles, Paris; (+), sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 21-22 February 1861, lot 95, as 'Une jeune Hollandaise by Rembrandt' (1,828 FF).
with Sedelmeyer, Paris; Künstlerhaus, Vienna, 20-21 December 1872, lot 140.
(Probably) Alexander Posonyi, Vienna.
Dr. James Simon, Berlin, by 1890.
A. B. Antik, Stockholm, by 1920, by whom sold to
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1920, by whom sold to
Philip G. McFadden, New York, 1926, by whom bequeathed to
Annette B. McFadden, by whom bequeathed to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1971.

Literature

E. Dutuit, Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt, Paris, 1885, p. 19.
W. Bode, 'Ausstellung von Werken der Niederländischen Kunst Veranstaltet durch die Kunstgeschichtliche Gesellschaft in Berlin: II, Die Gemälde aus Berliner Privatbesitz,' Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XI, 1890, p. 207, as 'Rembrandt'.
É. Michel, Rembrandt: sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps, Paris, 1893, pp. 142, 551-552, as 'Rembrandt, c. 1633-1634'.
É. Michel, Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, and His Time, English edition, New York, 1894, II, p. 243.
W. Bode and C. Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of Rembrandt, I, Paris, 1897, pp. 138, 140, no. 53, as 'Rembrandt, c. 1630'.
C. Hofstede de Groot, De Rembrandt Tentoonstelling te Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1898, no. 14.
Illustrated Catalogue of 300 Paintings by Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools, Paris, 1898, pp. 136-137, no. 119.
A. Rosenberg, Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde, 2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1906, p. 27, as 'c. 1630'.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné..., London, 1907-1927, XXII, p. 387, no. 847.
A. Rosenberg, Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde, 3rd ed., Stuttgart, 1909, p. 52.
W. A. Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007, II, pp. 1000-1002, no. 229, pl. 229, as 'Dutch painter circa 1640s'.

Exhibited

Berlin, Kunstgeschichtliche Gesellschaft, Niederländische Kunst, 1890, no. 219, as 'Rembrandt'.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Rembrandt Schilderijen, 8 September-31 October 1898, no. 14, as 'Rembrandt'.
Berlin, Ehemalig Gräflich Redern'schen Palais, Ausstellung von Werken Alter Kunst, 27 January-4 March 1906, no. 107, as 'Rembrandt'.
Berlin, Königlichen Kunst-Akademie, Ausstellung von Bildnissen des fünfzehnten bis achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, 31 March-30 April 1909, no. 113, as 'Rembrandt'.
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Loan Exhibition of Old Masters for the Benefit of the Bellevue Hospital Convalescent Relief Committee, 29 November-11 December 1920, no. 18, as 'Rembrandt'.
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century, 5-24 February 1945, no. 11, as 'Rembrandt'.
Caracas, Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, Grandes Maestros, 5 November-17 December 1967, no. 16, as 'Rembrandt'.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 18 September 2007-6 January 2008, no. 229, as 'Dutch Painter circa 1640s'.

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Lot Essay

This Young woman in an interior was long thought to be by Rembrandt. Reportedly sold from the Six Collection in 1828, it was exhibited as by Rembrandt in Amsterdam and Berlin around 1900 when it was in the collection of James Simon, and Wilhem Bode and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot both included it in their compendia of Rembrandt's paintings. Given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1971 by Annette B. McFadden, the portrait is no longer regarded as an authentic work by the artist, yet this depiction of a young woman in a domestic interior adorned with a fluted pilaster, carpet-draped table, box, chair and curtain remains a captivating and enigmatic image. Small, full-length portraits set in interiors were a popular type in Amsterdam in the 1630s, exemplified by works of Thomas de Keyser (1596/7-1667) such as his Portrait of a Lady in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (inv. no. 1/82). Rembrandt, when he first arrived in Amsterdam in 1631, also made several such portraits, including a picture formerly in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston dated 1633. Yet the present work stands apart from these prototypes as the woman is dressed more plainly and does not interact with her surroundings. The background, which includes Rembrandt's familiar motif of light from an unseen source at left, is executed with a warmer palette and looser handling than the figure, fueling speculation that the painting may be from the hands of two artists. Meanwhile, while the open door and step at right is a common element in interior scenes by Gerrit Dou and his followers in Leiden, the picture does not contain the high level of detail of the 'fine painters' associated with that city. Adding to the mystery of the panel is uncertainty around its date. The model's conservative costume is typical of the 1630s, yet dendrochronological analysis of the panel shows that it could not have been painted before the 1640s (Liedtke, op. cit., II, p. 1000).

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