Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time . taking his modelsfrom members of thehousehold, we naturallylook for numerous por-traits of his father amonghis works. But down tothe present time their iden-tification has been basedmerely on hypothesesmore or less plausible. Not long ago, , who hasmade a special study ofRembrandts etched work,gave it as his opinion thatRembrandts father wasprobably the original ofthe Old Man with along beard, and fur-trimmed cap (B. 262), oneof the best of the earlyplates. In my attempts to classify the studies executed by Rembrandtand his friends
Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time . taking his modelsfrom members of thehousehold, we naturallylook for numerous por-traits of his father amonghis works. But down tothe present time their iden-tification has been basedmerely on hypothesesmore or less plausible. Not long ago, , who hasmade a special study ofRembrandts etched work,gave it as his opinion thatRembrandts father wasprobably the original ofthe Old Man with along beard, and fur-trimmed cap (B. 262), oneof the best of the earlyplates. In my attempts to classify the studies executed by Rembrandtand his friends at this period, I was struck by the frequent appear-ance of a very characteristic type, which recurs no less than ninetimes among the masters engraved works, not to speak of threeheads scratched upon a single plate (B. 374). The nine are thefollowing in Bartschs catalogue : Nos. 262, 286, 287, 292, 293, 294,304. 321, and 324. With the exception of the two Oriental Headscomprised in this list (Nos. 286, 287), the same type somewhat VOL. I. G. KEMBRANDTS FATHER. (By Gerard Dou, Cassel Museum.) 42 REMBRANDT more freely treated, all these prints, save one (B. 263) are signedwith the monogram so often referred to, and dated 1630. Theapparent exception may possibly belong to this same year, forthe date, 1631, figures on the second state only. They were there-fore all executed before the death of Rembrandts Besides these etchings, I know of eleven paintings executed atthis period, all from the same model. They represent a bald-headedold man, with a thin face, long nose, bright eyes, full and ratherred eyelids, thin compressed lips, a moustache turned up at theends, a short beard, and a small mole on the chin. The constantrecurrence of this type, the fact that Rembrandt painted him morethan once in the steel gorget and accoutrements which he himselfwears in the Hague portrait, and various minor indications, seemedto me strongr evidences that the sitter was Rembrandts
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1894
