For more than a hundred years, a portrait hanging in a Cambridge entrepreneur's home has been written off as a workshop imitation: a decent copy of a Rembrandt, but not the genuine one. Now, one of the world's leading Rembrandt scholars says the experts got it wrong.
The painting, Old Man with a Gold Chain, depicts an elderly man in a plumed hat and (as the title suggests) a gleaming gold chain. It dates to the early 1630s and is nearly identical to an undisputed Rembrandt held by the Art Institute of Chicago. For the first time in almost four centuries, the two works have been displayed side by side in Chicago, and the comparison has reignited a long-running debate.
Scholar Gary Schwartz argues that both paintings are by the Dutch master himself. His reasoning: it was common practice among Dutch painters of the period to create their own replicas. Why hand the job to a pupil, whose mistakes would need correcting, when you could simply repaint a composition you'd just finished, with the steps still fresh in hand and mind? Crucially, the so-called "copy" shows none of the corrections you'd expect from a student learning on the job.
Technical analysis adds intrigue. The canvas and pigments of the UK version match those used by Rembrandt's studio, and its preparation layers align with eight confirmed Rembrandt works from 1632-33. The finding has been reported by media outlets such as The Guardian, and below, you can check out the paintings and judge for yourself: