Lot 165: Isaac de Joudreville (Leyden 1613 - vor 1648 Amsterdam)

Portrait of a young man, oil on canvas, 66.2 x 51.6 cm, unframed, (Wo)

This suggestive portrait of a young man facing the spectator with the calm earnestness of his dark eyes, and whose face is surrounded by a white lace collar, has traditionally been regarded as an autograph Rembrandt (see under Provenance and Literature). Only Werner Sumowski found it to be a work by Isaac de Joudreville, who, like Rembrandt, was born in Leyden. Together with Gerard Dou, he was one of Rembrandt's first students. According to Sumowski, the present work is reminiscent of Lieven in the late 1620s. In the Amsteram corpus it is compared with cat. nos. 1286 (Constantijn Huygens, Amsterdam) and 1260 (Portrait of Rembrandt, Cevat Collection). Here one can observe an early Joudreville under the influence of Jan Lievens. The painting belongs to the same group as the female tronies in Helsinki und Augsburg (cat. nos. 942 and 943). The artist depicted the same model one more time (Sumowski, cat. no. 2330). The contact between the young Joudreville and Rembrandt was established by Joudreville's father, a Frenchman who had been running the well-known inn Schilt van Vrankrijk in Leyden as from 1607. When Rembrandt left Leyden in 1631, Joudreville followed his teacher to Amsterdam.
Provenance: sale, Paley, London (as Rembrandt); sale, Christie’s, London, 16 June 1900, lot 65 (as Rembrandt); P. & D. Colnaghi, London (as Rembrandt); Steinmeyer, Cologne (as Rembrandt); Theodor Fleitmann Collection, New York (died 1975); Minusio, Switzerland; private property, Switzerland
Certificate: In his written communication of 21 November 2003 Professor Werner Sumowski confirms the authenticity of the present work and refers to its publication in his volume on the pupils of Rembrandt (see under Literature).
Literature: Wilhelm Bode, Hofstede de Groot, no. 559, repr. (as Rembrandt); Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Klassiker der Kunst, volume devoted to Rembrandt, Stuttgart 1908, p. 67, repr. (as well as supplements of 1921, 1923 and 1931 [as Rembrandt]); Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt, 1935 (Englisch edition 1937), p. 154 (as Rembrandt); Bauch, Rembrandt, no. 350 (as Rembrandt); Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Gesamtkatalog, des beschreibenden und kritischen Verzeichnisses der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. 6, Esslingen 1915 (and London 1916), p. 319, no. 762 (as Rembrandt); Wilhelmn Bode, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Werke Rembrandts, (as Rembrandt); Jakob Rosenberg, Rembrandt, London 1964 (as Rembrandt); Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 1983, vol. VI, no. 2329, repr. (as Isaac de Joudreville)
See also the preface to this catalogue.