Man with a Sheet of Music
Rembrandt van Rijn·1633
Historical Context
Rembrandt's Man with a Sheet of Music (1633) at the National Gallery of Art depicts a figure holding a page of musical notation — a subject that connected portraiture to the Dutch tradition of music-making genre scenes while adding the specificity of the sheet of music as both prop and attribute. The musical paper gives the anonymous sitter an identity related to musical practice — perhaps a musician, perhaps simply a cultured man whose musical literacy was worth documenting — and the warm brown interior setting and the directed light create the atmospheric quality of Rembrandt's mature Amsterdam portraits. The work belongs to the early period of his Amsterdam success when his portraits were most in demand among the city's wealthy commercial elite.
Technical Analysis
The early Amsterdam portrait shows Rembrandt's careful, detailed technique of the 1630s. The sheet of music is rendered with precise attention to its paper texture, and the face is modeled with warm chiaroscuro characteristic of his early manner.
Provenance
Jan Stolker [1724-1785], Rotterdam; (his sale, Rotterdam, 27 March 1786, no. 8). possibly Earl Howe.[1] private collection, Russia.[2] jointly owned by (Durand-Ruel) and (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), by July 1912;[3] purchased September 1912 by William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest April 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] According to Algernon Graves, a painting by Rembrandt titled _A Man with Roll of Music_ was lent by Earl Howe to the British Institution exhibition of 1860. See _A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912_, 5 vols., London, 1914: 3:1008. [2] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Sales book 10, 1912 February-1916 April, p. 70. [3] Knoedler's records suggests that the painting was already in the possession of Durand-Ruel by July 1912 at which time Knoedler acquired the half share. The painting is stock number 12893 in the M. Knoedler & Co. records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Stockbook 6, 12653-15139, 1911 December-1920 July.
