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Artist in His Studio
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669)
about 1628
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
24.8 x 31.7cm (9 3/4 x 12 1/2in.)
Credit Line
Zoe Oliver Sherman Collection given in memory of Lillie Oliver Poor
Accession Number38.1838
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CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
A young artist stands in a nearly empty studio, brushes in hand. Rather than showing the artist in the act of creation, Rembrandt focuses on the daunting expectations of the surface to be painted. This little picture asserts that making art is as intellectual as it is technical, a product of the mind as well as the hand. The painter here is conscious of the task ahead—think about how the looming easel blocks his way to the door—and maybe even of his place within the Netherlandish artistic tradition.
Catalogue Raisonné
Bredius 419; RRP A 18
ProvenanceChevalier Antoine de la Roque (b. 1672 - d. 1744), Paris; April, 1745, posthumous La Roque sale, Gersaint, Paris, lot 65, to Nelson. 1773, Le Favre and Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun (b. 1748 - d. 1813), Paris; January 11, 1773, Le Favre and Le Brun sale, Basan, Paris, lot 25. George Douglas (b. 1761 - d. 1827), 16th Earl of Morton and his wife, Susan Elizabeth Buller-Yarde-Buller (b. 1793 - d. 1849), Countess of Morton, Dalmahoy House, Kirknewton, Midlothian, Scotland [see note 1]; April 27, 1850, Countess of Morton sale, Christie's, London, lot 70, not sold [see note 2]; passed to the Countess of Morton's brother, John Buller-Yarde-Buller (b. 1799 - d. 1871), 1st Baron Churston, Lupton, Devonshire; until 1925, by descent within the family; June 26, 1925, Lord Churston and others sale, Christie's, London, lot 14, sold for £1417.10 to Zink, probably for Robert Langton Douglas (dealer; b. 1864 - d. 1951), London [see note 3]; sold by Douglas to Zoe Oliver Sherman (b. 1861 - d. 1945), Boston [see note 4]; 1938, gift of Zoe Oliver Sherman to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 31, 1938)
NOTES:
[1] In the 1926 Churston sale catalogue, the painting is said to be "formerly in the collection of the Right Hon. The Earl of Morton, at Dalmahoy, Kirknewton, Midlothian." The seller of the collection in 1850 was his (deceased) wife, the Dowager Countess of Morton.
[2] The painting brought only six guineas when it was put up for auction in 1850.
[3] Although published sale results give the purchaser as "Zink," Robert Langton Douglas is said to have acquired the painting by C. Hofstede de Groot, "Rembrandt's Painter in His Studio," Burlington Magazine 47, no. 272 (November, 1925): p. 265.
[4] First published in her collection by W. R. Valentiner, "Two Early Self-Portraits by Rembrandt," Art in America 14 (1926): p. 118, fig. 1. Zoe Oliver Sherman acquired other European paintings from Douglas.
NOTES:
[1] In the 1926 Churston sale catalogue, the painting is said to be "formerly in the collection of the Right Hon. The Earl of Morton, at Dalmahoy, Kirknewton, Midlothian." The seller of the collection in 1850 was his (deceased) wife, the Dowager Countess of Morton.
[2] The painting brought only six guineas when it was put up for auction in 1850.
[3] Although published sale results give the purchaser as "Zink," Robert Langton Douglas is said to have acquired the painting by C. Hofstede de Groot, "Rembrandt's Painter in His Studio," Burlington Magazine 47, no. 272 (November, 1925): p. 265.
[4] First published in her collection by W. R. Valentiner, "Two Early Self-Portraits by Rembrandt," Art in America 14 (1926): p. 118, fig. 1. Zoe Oliver Sherman acquired other European paintings from Douglas.