Portrait Of A Clergyman (Helmich Van Thweenhuysen II) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''Portrait of a Clergyman'' is a c.1650 oil on canvas painting long attributed to 
It was donated to the church of św. Elżbiety in
Zagadka tzw. Ecce Homo z kościoła św. Piotra na Helu
Zabytkoznawstwo i Konserwatorstwo XXV, Nauki Humanistyczno-Społeczne, z.280, Toruń 1994, p.80-81
''Portrait of a Clergyman'' is a c.1650 oil on canvas painting long attributed to Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
but now attributed to Helmich van Thweenhuysen II, a Dutch painter active in Gdansk. It has been in the National Museum in Wrocław
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
since 1947.
It shows an unknown grey-bearded man against an olive-grey background, with his right hand resting on a book. His cap may mean he was an Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
clergyman, possibly a Greek bishop, and it was previously titled ''The Greek Bishop''. A similar composition is now in Sphinx Fine Art
A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of a ...
in London.
It was donated to the church of św. Elżbiety in Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
by city councillor Anton Götz von Schwanenfliess in 1708 as a Rembrandt. It was reattributed to Rembrandt's pupil Ferdinand Bol during the 19th century, then to a German follower of Rembrandt in an 1879 catalogue of the Museum of Fine Arts in Wrocław. In 1855 it was moved to the Ständehaus on Krupnicza Street and in 1879 to the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts (Schlesisches Museum der bildenden Künste) as inventory number 259).
In 1903 it was moved again, this time to the Silesian Museum of Artistic Crafts and Antiquities (Schlesisches Museum für Kunstgewerbe und Altertümer) as inventory number 396: 04. From 1945 to 1947 it was cared for by Wrocław's Department of Museums and Monuments Protection, before being transferred to its present home in 1947 of the city of Wrocław before moving to its present home.
In 1973, by reading letters discovered on the canvas by Bożena Steinborn, the work was reattributed again, this time to the painter known as the HvT Monogramist. Steinborn argued that the work resembled the style of Christoph Paudis. Its present attribution was assigned in 1994 by Lech Borusewicz{{in lang, pl Lech BorusewicZagadka tzw. Ecce Homo z kościoła św. Piotra na Helu
Zabytkoznawstwo i Konserwatorstwo XXV, Nauki Humanistyczno-Społeczne, z.280, Toruń 1994, p.80-81
References