Netherlands: The Rembrandt that hung in the corner of the museum for a century

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A woman looks at the newly discovered Rembrandt

Photo: KOEN VAN WEEL / AFP

101 years ago, the Dutchman Abraham Bredius bought a painting for his collection: The art historian assumed that the oil sketch was a real Rembrandt - but experts after him were of the opinion that it was a "clumsy imitation" like that Guardian writes.

So »The Raising of the Cross« hung in a corner of what is now the Bredius Museum in The Hague, as one painting among many.

New research has now revealed that it is probably an original after all.

"The discovery was a pleasant surprise," Boris de Munnick of the Bredius Museum told Reuters.

"We already had one work of art by Rembrandt, and now suddenly we have two."

The painting was discovered by Dutch art historian Jeroen Giltaij while researching a forthcoming book on Rembrandt paintings.

"I was sure from the start that this sketch must be a Rembrandt," Giltaij told Reuters.

It is often difficult to distinguish between the works of the famous painter and those of his successors.

»But this sketch is so splendidly painted that it simply has to be by Rembrandt«.

»Rembrandt is usually very precise and refined«

The museum decided to examine the painting, but overpainting and protective coatings, more than 100 years old, made it difficult to assess.

So the painting was first stripped of the newer layers and restored.

The museum then brought in experts from Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, which houses Rembrandt's masterpiece »The Night Watch«.

With regard to the materials, the experts had found nothing that spoke against a Rembrandt, the Bredius Museum said.

The results of a further analysis are still pending.

The fact that experts long considered the oil sketch to be an imitation was partly due to the fact that the brushstrokes are not very detailed.

"You have to keep in mind that this is an oil sketch," said art historian Giltaij, according to the Guardian.

“Rembrandt is usually very precise and refined, but this one is very crude.

The reason for this is that the oil sketch is a preparatory sketch for another painting.

He wants to show the composition, a rough idea of ​​what the actual painting might look like,” he said.

Contrary to what one might assume, the painting was obviously not a preparation for The Raising of the Cross from 1633, which hangs in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

According to the investigations, the oil sketch in the Bredius Museum was created about ten years after the well-known work, the museum said.

The oil sketch could also not be a copy by another artist of Rembrandt, created in 1633, because the differences between the works are too great.

»After all, a copyist changes nothing, but paints the original as precisely as possible«.

According to the painting's restorer, the artist also made changes to the painting during the painting process.

That means it must have been a "creative process," said restorer Johanneke Verhave, according to the Guardian.

Despite all this, art historian Gitaij assumes that other experts could contest the discovery.

"That's the way it is in the Rembrandt art world."

kko/Reuters