Lot 270: ISAAC DE JOUDERVILLE

TRONIE OF A YOUNG MAN, POSSIBLY A PORTRAIT OF THE YOUNG REMBRANDT
inscribed with a red inventory number lower left: 153

11 by 9 1/2 in.; 27.9 by 24.2 cm.

oil on paper laid down on panel

Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, Rembrandt als Leermeester, June 1 - September 1, 1956, no. 12 (as a self portrait by Rembrandt).

K. Bauch, Der frühe Rembrandt und seine Zeit, 1960, p. 266, fig. 179A, note 185 (as an early self portrait by Lievens);
H. Schneider and R. Ekkart, Jan Lievens: Sein Leben und seine Werke, Amsterdam 1973, p. 356 (as a "Portrait of a Man, not by Lievens");
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schuler, Vol .5, p. 3104, no. 2104, reproduced.

Private Collection, Basel;
Wertheimer Collection, Paris;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, July 6, 1984, lot 26 (as Attributed to Jan Lievens);
With Warren Walker;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Jouderville was one of Rembrandt's earliest pupils and was apprenticed to him from 1629 to 1631. In 1631 he accompanied Rembrandt to Amsterdam, and may have continued to help the master with his portrait commissions in the following years. The present work, which dates from the early 1630s, was previously attributed to Rembrandt and then to Lievens and described as a self portrait of each respectively. Certainly the sitter's bushy hair and bulbous nose recall a number of early paintings and etchings by Rembrandt, such as the Tronie with Rembrandt's Features of c. 1629, in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg or Self Portrait Frowning (Holl. 10) (1) of 1630, which has similar features but also the moustache that is characteristic of his self portraits from about 1630 onwards. However, there are enormous differences in the way Rembrandt portrayed himself, often dependent on whether he was making a true self portrait or had another purpose in mind, so it is extremely difficult for us to have an accurate sense of what he looked like. It is clear that the present work was very much inspired by Rembrandt, but whether it is a portrait of him remains a question.

1. Hollstein's Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, vol. XIX, Rembrandt van Rijn, compiled by C. White and K.G. Boon, cat. no. 10.