Portrait of a Man in a Tall Hat
Rembrandt van Rijn·c. 1663
Historical Context
Rembrandt's Portrait of a Man in a Tall Hat (c. 1663) at the National Gallery of Art is one of his late male portraits from the period of his most austere and psychologically penetrating style. By 1663 Rembrandt was living in reduced circumstances, producing portraits for a more limited clientele than the prosperous 1630s commissions, and the late portraits show a corresponding shift in the character of the sitters: less formally prosperous, more personally vulnerable, captured with a directness that seems to reflect both the painter's own circumstances and his deepened understanding of human character. The man's gaze combines dignity with the awareness of difficulty that marked Rembrandt's late human studies.
Technical Analysis
The very late portrait shows Rembrandt's most liberated brushwork, with thick impasto building up the features in bold, expressive strokes. The warm, golden tonality and the depth of the dark background create an image of remarkable psychological presence.
Provenance
Stanisław August Poniatowski, king of Poland [1732-1798]. (Mr. Noe, Munich). Gasser collection, Vienna. Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich [1773-1859]; purchased by (Otto Mündler, Paris); sold 1865 to Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st baron Wimborne [1835-1914], Canford Manor, Dorsetshire.[1] (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London); Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, by 1912; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] The painting was first published by Wilhelm von Bode, _Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei_, Braunschweig, 1883: 530, 579–580, no. 148. The early provenance is given in _A Catalogue of the Pictures at Canford Manor in the Possession of Lord Wimborne_, Edinburgh, 1888: 62, no. 153, but it has not yet been confirmed through other sources. The painting does not appear in Tadeusz Mankowski’s reconstruction of the 1795 inventory of the Polish king’s collection, _Galerja Stanisława Augusta_, Lwów, 1932. Gasser, described in the 1888 catalogue as “the sculptor of Vienna,” was perhaps Hans Gasser (1817-1868), an Austrian sculptor and painter who also built up an art collection (see Walter Krause, “Gasser, Hans,” in _The Dictionary of Art_, ed. Jane Turner, 34 vols., New York, 1996: 12:172.
