The reattributed, renamed self-portrait, “Rembrandt Laughing”
Okay, so I’m not a Rembrandt expert. Last October, I looked at the photo of the above painting and imprudently wrote:
My gut reaction, from a lifetime of gazing at Rembrandts, is “not” [as in, “not a Rembrandt”] but I’m certainly no specialist. There’s always that time-honored category for new “discoveries”—Great Artist on a Bad Day.
Now the Associated Press reports that some true experts have given this painting a thumbs-up, not to mention a new title. It’s now called, “Rembrandt Laughing”—a more appealing appellation than “The Young Rembrandt as Democrates the Laughing Philosopher.” That’s how it was catalogued, attributed to “follower of Rembrandt,” when it was snapped up eight months ago by an anonymous buyer for £2.2 million. The auctioneer then was Moore, Allen & Innocent of Norcote, England, a firm that counts “agricultural and rural services” among its diverse departments. “Innocent” indeed.
Now the mirthful master has attracted the eye of at least one big-time auctioneer: Jan Six, old masters expert for Sotheby’s, Amsterdam. He informed the AP’s Anrica Deb that whereas Rembrandt‘s paintings appear on the market infrequently, a self-portrait by him is “absolutely unique—not in my lifetime.” Six declined to give Deb a figure for the reattributed painting’s value, but William Noortman, whose Noortman Master Paintings was acquired by Sotheby’s in 2006, showed no such reticence. His guess: $30-40 million.
The Rembrandt Research Project was involved in reevaluating the painting’s authorship. It announced in its press release:
It was subjected to an exhaustive examination by the Rembrandt Research Project in association with a British laboratory [Nicholas Eastaugh, London]. It has now been established on a range of technical and stylistic grounds that this is an authentic early work by Rembrandt dating from around 1628.
The RRP’s head, Ernst van de Wetering, who published a 23-page analysis of the painting, was quoted by AP extolling it:
It has an incredible presence. The light has the most natural quality of light you can think of…and I love the naturalness of the laughing.
So is the bargain purchaser now going to cash in on his good fortune by dispatching his find to Sotheby’s, Noortman, or some other agent?
I have a question pending with Sotheby’s and I’ll update if there’s any news.
In the meantime, the work is on loan at the Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam, where it is being displayed until June 29 or July 20, depending on which date on its website you believe. (Go here, click on “Exhibitions” and then “What’s On.”)
Do I sense a Martin Bijl restoration in its future (shades of St. James the Greater, sold by Sotheby’s, January 2007)?