Longing for a Rembrandt

Since it seemed to be a knockoff of a 17th century Rembrandt, the auction house priced the portrait at $3,100 and nothing more. For the British buyer that paid 1,500 times more than that, he surely knew what situation he put himself in. Four and a half million was the amount paid to an English auction house for the Rembrandt Laughing which experts said was a self portrait done by the Dutch master depicted with his head tilted back in easygoing laughter.

There is a collector whose specializes in Dutch and Flemish masters and according to him such a piece could have easily sold for $30 to $40 million and he was surprised that it did not do so well at the auction. After being asked to change the value of the painting the art expert from Sotheby's declined to do so. The works of Rembrandt only come on the market once every couple of years and so the sale is a rare opportunity in itself.

In his hometown of Leiden was where Rembrandt painted the self portrait and he was in his early 20s then in 1628. This was when he was starting to earn his reputation as an artist and he began experimenting with expressions by using a mirror and his face. Such an astonishing presence is what it has. Other than the naturalness of the laugh, the light has the most natural quality as well.

Previously owning the painting for over 100 years was an English family. Many people believed that it was either a student or an imitator of Rembrandt's. Due to a number of poor photographs showing little of the painting's luminosity or depth, the auction house may have had a reason for providing a low evaluation. A 23 page analysis was made and in it showed how Rembrandt could have created the little work of art as it considered the materials, contour, brush stroke, and monogram that points to him.

Considering that the painting was a genuine Rembrandt from the monogram RHL, the winner of the auction may have suspected this after recognizing the rare style that was used by the artist for a year. It stands for Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden. The auction house wrote the signature as HL in its assessment. These become more compelling [roof especially because they were painted onto the background using a brush stroke that matched the directionality used by Rembrandt.

The experts were confused because of the shape of the body of the laughing Rembrandt. It had a woolly blanket for clothing, it lay in lumpy folds, the metal armor and glossy shirt appear amorphous, and it had little description of the anatomy underneath. But there is a distinct contour which he also used in his later works. If you look at this contour, it has a certain autonomy, said the expert adding that it may have been one of the first times Rembrandt tested out this way of painting the body.

When it comes to the size and type, the thin copper plate on which the piece is painted matches the other Rembrandt paintings. There is a second painting underneath this particular work and based from the xrays this is a distinct mark in all Rembrandt works. No one knows where the painting was before 1800 and it was the time when a Flemish engraver attributed the original to the Dutch painter Frans Hals when he made a reproductive print as he did not realize that the face in the picture was Rembrandt's. Because of the silence that followed the location of the painting again became a mystery.

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