One does not come across a Rembrandt genuinely, but sometimes that is what exactly happens. An oil sketch that has languished in obscurity at a Dutch museum for more than a century is now believed to be a true Rembrandt.
The Bredius museum in the Hague, which has owned the work for over 100 years, held the believe that the sketch to be the work of one of Rembrandt’s followers.
Recently, this Thursday, it revealed that experts have attributed it to the Dutch master himself, making the painting all the more important in the history of art.
The Raising of the Cross was executed in the 1640s and was brought to the museum by Abraham Bredius, the museum’s original curator. Bredius was confident that the picture was a true Rembrandt, but for years the sketch was shrugged off as a copy by experts who cited the work’s lack of refinement and precision.
“I looked at this work again and again. At the brush strokes. They are brilliant,” Jeroen Giltaij, former chief curator of old paintings at Rotterdam’s Boijmans Van Beuningen museum, told Agence France-Presse. “Just a few broad brush strokes” had him convinced the picture was the work of the famous Dutchman.
Giltaij made the “discovery” while working on his Big Book of Rembrandt Paintings, which covers all 684 works known to have been made by the painter. Johanneke Verhave, an art restorer based in Rotterdam, confirmed Giltaij’s theory after performing infrared reflectography and X-ray scans on the work.
“You have to remember, this is an oil sketch. Rembrandt is usually very precise and refined, but this is very rough. The reason is the oil sketch is a preparatory sketch for another painting. He wants to show the composition, a rough idea of what the actual painting could look like.” said Giltajj