Authentic Rembrandt

For the auction house, the portrait was simply a knockoff of a 17th century Rembrandt so they set a price of $3,100 for it. When a British buyer agreed to pay 1,500 times more than that, he was completely aware of his actions. It was indeed the Dutch master, depicted with his head tilted back in easygoing laughter, who created a self portrait in the Rembrandt Laughing as experts have authenticated and the piece only sold for four and a half million in an English auction house.

A collector, specializing in Dutch and Flemish masters, said it’s worth $30 million to $40 million, adding that he is very surprised it didn’t make more at auction. When it came to putting a different value on the painting the art expert from Sotheby’s declined. Still he mentioned how it was rare to have a painting by Rembrandt up for sale for this is an opportunity that happens every so often.

1628 was when Rembrandt made this self portrait and during that time he was in his hometown of Leiden during his early 20s. This was during the time when he was earning his reputation as an artist and by using a mirror and his face he could play with expressions. Fantastic is the presence it has. For the light and the laughter, both were in their most natural quality.

Over 100 years was how long an English family previously owned the painting. It has been said by people that it could have been a student or an imitator of Rembrandt’s. Due to a number of poor photographs showing little of the painting’s luminosity or depth, the auction house may have had a reason for providing a low evaluation. When it comes to this little work, a 23 page analysis explained how Rembrandt could have been the only one responsible for the piece because of the brush stroke, monogram, contour, and materials.

The auction’s winner may have suspected the painting was a genuine Rembrandt from the monogram RHL, painted in a rare style that the artist only used for about a year. What the monogram stood for was Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden. What the auction house recorded in its assessment was the signature HL. The initials become more compelling proof when considering that they were painted onto the background, and that the direction of the brush strokes match another monogram known to be Rembrandt’s.

The body shape of the laughing Rembrandt ended up bewildering the experts. Besides having little definition of the anatomy below, a way to describe it was that it had a wooly blanket for clothing, the metal armor and glossy shirt appeared amorphous, and it lay in lumpy folds. His later works also saw the same distinct contour he applied in this particular work. Rembrandt was probably trying out this method of painting the body for the first time for the contour has a certain autonomy to it.

Considering the thin copper plate on which the piece is painted, it is similar to the size and type as that of other Rembrandt paintings. There is a second painting underneath this particular work and based from the xrays this is a distinct mark in all Rembrandt works. It was before 1800 and the painting’s whereabouts remained unknown and during this time a Flemish engraver made a mistake and attributed the original to the Dutch painter Frans Hals when he made a reproductive print not realizing how the face in the picture was that of Rembrandt’s. No one knew where it stayed afterwards because of the silence that followed.

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