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Apr 27, 2009

Nov 26, 2007

Sep 30, 2008

Apr 27, 2009

A Young Man with a Chain

c. 1629 or 1632

Rembrandt van Rijn

(Dutch, 1606–1669)

and Studio

Netherlands

Oil on wood

Framed: 83.8 x 69.9 x 12.7 cm (33 x 27 1/2 x 5 in.); Unframed: 57.8 x 43.8 cm (22 3/4 x 17 1/4 in.)

Bequest of John L. Severance 1942.644

Location

213 Dutch Painting

Did you know?

Once identified as Rembrandt himself, the sitter is now considered an anonymous study of human character.

Description

This painting is an example of a tronie, a Dutch word meaning “head” or “facial expression.” Tronies were not intended to be identifiable portraits, but artistic investigations of facial appearance and fanciful costume. Particularly in the years around 1630, Rembrandt used this popular format to explore different lighting effects and facial expressions. Here, the strong contrast of light and shade shapes the contours of the young man’s face; unusual accessories such as the striped scarf and glittering pendant on a jeweled chain add an exotic touch. Although this painting bears Rembrandt’s monogram, the authorship is not certain. Some scholars have attributed it to Isaac de Joudreville (1613–1648), a pupil and associate of Rembrandt who painted comparable tronies in a similarly smooth and elegant style.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed at right: "RHL van Rijn / 1632 [RHL in monogram]"

Citations

Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters; London, United Kingdom: Smith and Son, 1829. Reproduced: p. 92, no. 233, vol. 7

Dutuit, Eugène. Tableaux et Dessins de Rembrandt: Catalogue Historique et Descriptif. Paris: Lévy, 1885. Mentioned: p. 20-21

Bode, Wilhelm von, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, and Auguste Marguillier. L' Oeuvre Complet de Rembrandt: Reproduction par l'héliogravure de tous les Tableaux du Maître, Accompagnée de leur Histoire, de leur Description et d'une étude Biographique et Critique. 8. Paris: Sedelmeyer, 1906. Reproduced and mentioned: vol. VIII, no. 7, p. 156, 160

Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. London, United Kingdom: Macmillan and Co, 1908. Reproduced: p. 275, vol. VI

Rosenberg, Adolf and Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner. Rembrandt; des Meisters Gemälde in 643 Abbildungen, mit einer biographischen Einleitung. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1909. Reproduced: p. 522

M. Knoedler & Co. Portrait of a Youth by Rembrant, 1606-1669. London: M. Knoedler & Co, n.d. Reproduced and mentioned: [1-10]

Valentiner, Wilhelm Reinhold. Rembrandt: Wiedergefundene Gemälde (1910-1922). Stuttgart: Dt. Verl.-Anst, 1923. Mentioned: p. 26

Detroit Institute of Arts, and Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner. The Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, Paintings by Rembrandt: The Detroit Institute of Arts, May 2 to 31, 1930. Detroit, MI: The Institute, 1930. Reproduced: opp. no. 66 and on cover

Valentiner, Wilhelm Reinhold. Rembrandt Paintings in America. New York: S.W. Frankel, 1931. Reproduced: pl. 16

Bredius, Abraham, ed.,The Paintings of Rembrandt. Vienna. Austria: Phaidon-Verlag, 1936. Reproduced: p. 7, pl. 156

Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition: June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. Mentioned: p. 93-94, no. 232

Milliken, William. “The Twentieth Annual Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art.” ARTnews 34, pt. 2 (June 13, 1936): 7-14. Mentioned: p. 12

Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition : June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. Mentioned: cat. no. 232

Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942. Reproduced: p. [17], Plate V, cat. no. 13; Mention: p. 22, cat. no. 13 archive.org

Berryman, F. S. "Important Bequest to Cleveland Museum." Magazine of Art 35 (November 1942): 264. Mentioned: p. 264

Francis, Henry S. "Department of Paintings." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art XXIX, no. 9 (November, 1942):132-136. Mentioned: p. 135

“Cleveland Installs Last Gifts of John L. Severance.” Art Digest 17 (December 1, 1942): 8. Mentioned: p. 8

Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. Reproduced; p. 24

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 446 archive.org

Jaffe, Michael. "The Figurative Arts of the West, c. 1400-1800." Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 77 (December 1963) p. 467. Reproduced: p. 467

Gimpel, René. Journal d'un Collectionneur, Marchand de Tableaux. [Paris]: Calmann-Lévy, 1963. Mentioned: p. 236

Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt Gemälde. Berlin, Germany: W. de Gruyter, 1966. Reproduced: p. 142

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 123 archive.org

Erpel, Fritz. Die Selbstbildnisse Rembrandts. Wien: A. Langen, 1967. Reproduced: p. 202, no. 124

Gerson, H., ed., Rembrandt Paintings. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Reynal & Co, 1968. Reproduced: fig. 101, Mentioned: p. 256-493

Bredius, Abraham and H. Gerson. The Complete Edition of the Paintings [of] Rembrandt. London, United Kingdom: Phaidon, 1969. Reproduced: p. 560. no. 156

Paolo Lecaldano, Paolo. L'opera pittorica completa di Rembrandt. Milano, Italy: Rizzoli, 1969. Reproduced: no. 73

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 123 archive.org

D' Argencourt, Louise, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 3. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: no. 111

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 158 archive.org

Morse, John D. Old Master Paintings in North America: Over 3000 Masterpieces by 50 Great Artists. New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1979. Listed: p. 232

Bruyn, J., Ernst van de Wetering, C. J. van Nes, and Murray Pearson. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. The Hague, Netherlands: M. Nijhoff Publishers, 1982. Reproduced: a 23, Mentioned: p. 214-248

Bruyn, J., Ernst van de Wetering, C. J. van Nes, and Murray Pearson. A corpus of Rembrandt paintings. The Hague, Netherlands: M. Nijhoff Publishers, 1982. Reproduced: p. 82, fig. 3, vol. II

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 255; Mentioned: p. 254-256

Schwartz, Gary. Rembrandt: zijn leven, zijn schilderijen : een nieuwe biografie met alle beschikbare schilderijen in klur afgebeeld. Maarssen: Uitgeverij Gary Schwartz, 1984. Reproduced: p. 196, pl. 209

Guillaud, Jacqueline, and Maurice Guillaud. Rembrandt, The Human form and Spirit. Paris, France: Guillaud Editions, 1986. Reproduced: p. 270, fig. 319

Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Washington, D.C.: Netherlands-American Amity Trust, 1986. Mentioned: p. 66, 345

Van de Wetering, E. Corrigenda et Addenda to Volume I. In: A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project Foundation, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht, 1986. Mentioned: p. 838

Liedtke, Walter. "Reconstructing Rembrandt: Portraits from the early years in Amsterdam." Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 129 (May 1989): p. 331, 372. Reproduced: n. 64

Tümpel, Christian, and Astrid Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour. Antwerp, Belgium: Fonds Mercator, 1993. Reproduced: p. 189, 427, cat. no. A 37

Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 193

Fleischer, Roland E., and Susan C. Scott. Rembrandt, Rubens, and the Art of Their Time: Recent Perspectives. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, 1997. Reproduced: p. 6

Giltaij, Jeroen and Shinji Hata. Rembrandt Rembrandt. Hakkō: Shiboruto zaidan, 2002. Reproduced: p. 59, Mentioned: p. 58-59

Scallen, Catherine B., Rembrandt, Reputation, and the Practice of Connoisseurship. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. Reproduced: p. 260, fig. 61

Bleker, E. J., and A. A. H. Bleker-Poot. Rembrandt en de Blekerfamilie. Lochem, Netherlands: Silverborgh B.V., 2005. Reproduced: p. 203, Vol. 2

S.A.C. Dudok Van Heel, "Rembrandt als Portretschilder bij Hendrick Uylenburgh, 1631-1635, met opdrachten in Den Haag, Leiden en Rotterdam." Amstelodamum 107-2 (April-June 2020) p. 77, no. 26

Giltaij, Jeroen. Het grote Rembrandt boek: alle 684 schilderijen. Zwolle : WBOOKS, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 127, no. 176

Exhibition history

Verein Ausstellung. Kaiser Friederich Museum, Berlin, Germany (1906).

Rembrandt Exhibition. Kroller Müller Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1913-1914).

Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Rembrandt. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (1930).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

Exhibition of the John L. Severance Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 12, 1942-March 14, 1943).

Dutch Painting, The Golden Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 5-February 27, 1955).

Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

Rembrandt Rembrandt. Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan (organizer) (November 3, 2002-January 13, 2003); Städelsches Kunstinstitut im Städtischen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main, Franfurt am Main, Germany (January 31-May 11, 2003).

Rembrandt Paintings in America. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (organizer) (October 30, 2011-January 22, 2012); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 19-May 28, 2012); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (June 24-September 16, 2012).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=A Young Man with a Chain|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.644|author=Rembrandt van Rijn|year=c. 1629 or 1632|access-date=29 November 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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A Young Man with a Chain

A Young Man with a Chain

Rembrandt van Rijn

and Studio

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