Rembrandt laughing
7 June - 29 June 2008 in The Rembrandt House Museum

In October 2007 a painting of a laughing man came to light, and there was speculation that it might be by Rembrandt. This painting will soon be on show in the Rembrandt House. It is being presented to the public, together with a small number of related works and extensive documentation, in Rembrandt’s former studio.

Although this little painting was feted as a new discovery, its existence was already known of thanks to a reproductive print dating from around 1800. The printmaker believed that it was a painting by Frans Hals, but in the early twentieth century several art historians became convinced that the print was produced after a work by Rembrandt. This view, however, went virtually unnoticed by the art world.

When the painting surfaced at an English sale in 2007, some people recognized it as an authentic Rembrandt. In the ensuing months it was subjected to an exhaustive examination by the Rembrandt Research Project in association with a British laboratory. It has now been established on a range of technical and stylistic grounds that this is an authentic early work by Rembrandt dating from around 1628.

During the early part of his career Rembrandt studied the various emotions ('affects') of human beings as they were expressed in the face and in the posture. The painting is an exceptional expression of this interest. A number of striking similarities between this work and Rembrandt’s early self-portrait of around 1629 in Nuremberg leaves it in no doubt that this little picture must have been painted in front of a mirror. Hence the title that has been chosen: Rembrandt Laughing.