The Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) was an initiative of the

Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek The Dutch Research Council (NWO, Dutch: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) is the national research council of the Netherlands. NWO funds thousands of top researchers at universities and institutes and steers the course o ...

(NWO), which is the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. Its purpose was to organize and categorize research on

Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the h ...

, with the aim of discovering new facts about this

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands which roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the '' Rampjaar'' occurred. During this period, Dutch trade, scientific development ...

painter and his studio. The project started in 1968 and was sponsored by NWO until 1998. Research continued until 2014. It was the authority on Rembrandt and had the final say in whether a painting is ''genuine''. The documentation generated by the project was transferred to the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

and renamed the Rembrandt Database.

Results

As a result of the project, which analyzed documentation, techniques, and forensic research on Rembrandt paintings from his early years in

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

until his death, the number of signed Rembrandt ''self-portraits'' around the world has been reduced by half. Also, more paintings have been attributed to students working in the Rembrandt studio, and more has been discovered about the ways in which the students worked. Recently, period copies of Rembrandt paintings are being studied for clues as to whether certain copies were factory-style pieces for visiting functionaries. Rembrandt's work was in high demand for decades, and he managed to keep productivity up while also keeping his prices high by enforcing strict quality control on the work done in his studio. The project's six-volume publication, ''A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings'', is considered the definitive authority by all auction houses and dealers who work with works by Rembrandt and his studio. The research project has proved invaluable to art historians, and the lack of such a project for other prominent Dutch painters such as

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, ; ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate thei ...

is felt sorely by museums and collectors trying to acquire the same sort of ''stamp of approval'' on their paintings. However, the project has also initiated debate about the feasibility of conclusive attribution, particularly for painters who were associated with one or more workshops.

Publications

* ''A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings'', various writers, in six volumes: :: Volume I, ''1629-1631'', 1982 (over early years in Leiden) :: Volume II, ''1621-1634'', 1986 :: Volume III, ''1635-1642'', 1989 :: Volume IV, E. van de Wetering (editor), ''Self-Portraits'', 2005 :: Volume V, E. van de Wetering (editor), ''The Small-Scale History Paintings'', 2010 :: Volume VI, E. van de Wetering (editor), ''Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited, A Complete Survey'', 2014 * Ernst van de Wetering, ''Rembrandt: The Painter at Work'', Amsterdam University Press, 2009, . * Ernst van de Wetering, Barbara de Lange, ''Rembrandt in Nieuw Licht'', Local World, Amsterdam, 2009, .

Concordance with other Rembrandt catalogs

The research project is also the single point of reference regarding concordance with other catalogs of the master's works, though most of these reference each other, as well. Below is a partial list of some commonly quoted catalogs: * ''Catalogue extracted from the Register L R. fol. 29 to 39 inclusive, of the Inventory of the Effects of Rembrandt Van Rhyn'', deposited in the Office of the Administration of Insolvent Estates at Amsterdam, 1656 (published in English by Smith, 1836) * ''Beredeneerde catalogus der werken van Rembrandt van Rhyn, en van zyne leerlingen en navolgers, herkomende uit het kabinet van wylen den heer C. Ploos van Amstel, J.Cz., welke in het openbaar zullen verkogt worden'' (Sale catalog of works sold from the collection of Cornelis Ploos van Amstel on Tuesday 31 July 1810), C. Josi, Amsterdam 1810 * ''A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters : in which is included a short biographical notice of the artists, with a copious description of their principal pictures; a statement of the prices at which such pictures have been sold at public sales on the continent and in England; a reference to the galleries and private collections, in which a large portion are at present; and the names of the artists by whom they have been engraved; to which is added, a brief notice of the scholars & imitators of the great masters of the above schools'', Volume 7 on "Rembrandt van Rhyn", by Smith, John, dealer in pictures, 1836 * ''Rembrandt'', 8 volumes, by

Wilhelm von Bode Wilhelm von Bode (10 December 1845 – 1 March 1929) was a German art historian and museum curator. Born Arnold Wilhelm Bode in Calvörde, and known as Wilhelm Bode for most of his career, he was ennobled in 1913, and thereafter adopted the ar ...

with

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator. Life He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned German ...

, 1897–1905 * '' Rembrandt : des Meisters Gemälde in 643 Abbildungen'', by Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner and Adolf Rosenberg, 1908 * ''Beschreibendes kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Mahler des XVII. Jahrhunderts (1907-1928)'', Volume 6 ''Rembrandt'', by Hofstede de Groot, 1914 * '' Rembrandt Paintings'', by

Abraham Bredius Abraham Bredius (18 April 1855 – 13 March 1946) was a Dutch art collector, art historian, and museum curator. Life Bredius travelled widely, visiting various art collections in his youth, and worked at the Dutch Museum for History and Art be ...

, 1935 * ''Rembrandt : Gemälde'', by Kurt Bauch, 1966 * ''Rembrandt'', by Bob Haak, 1968 * ''

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

'', by

Horst Gerson Horst Gerson (2 March 1907 – 10 June 1978) was a German-Dutch art historian. Biography Gerson was born in Berlin on 2 March 1907, and after studying art history in Vienna, he became a pupil and assistant of Cornelis Hofstede de Groot and worke ...

, 1968 * ''Rembrandt : the complete edition of the paintings'', a reworking of the Bredius 1935 list by Gerson with explicitly rejected attributions and re-attributions, 1969 * ''L' opera pittorica completa di Rembrandt'', by Paolo Lecaldano, 1969 * ''

'', by

Christian Tümpel Christian Tümpel (1937–2009) was a German art historian active in the Netherlands. Tümpel was born in Bielefeld. He first studied theology and philosophy before continuing his education at Heidelberg in art history and archeology, receiving h ...

, 1986 * ''Rembrandt : catalogo completo dei dipinti'', by Leonard J. Slatkes, 1992 * ''The Rembrandt Book'', by Gary Schwarz, 2006

Old man with turban

In 1998, the pan Amsterdam art fair showed a Rembrandt for the first time that until then had been attributed to his pupil

Jacques des Rousseaux Jacques des Rousseaux (1600 – 1638), was a Baroque painter active in Leiden. He was born in Torcoing, which at the time was part of the Spanish Netherlands. Biography According to the RKD he was a pupil of Rembrandt in Leiden from 1630 onw ...

. This painting was first cataloged in 1917 by

, who accepted it as a Rembrandt. Later Kurt Bauch rejected this based on a photograph and attributed it to

Jan Lievens Jan Lievens (24 October 1607 – 4 June 1674) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was associated with his close contemporary Rembrandt, a year older, in the early parts of their careers. They shared a birthplace in Leiden, training with Pieter ...

without ever having seen the painting.

Werner Sumowski Werner may refer to: People * Werner (name), origin of the name and people with this name as surname and given name Fictional characters * Werner (comics), a German comic book character * Werner Von Croy, a fictional character in the ''Tomb Rai ...

re-attributed the painting based on photographs to Rousseaux as a rebuttal to the arguments by art historians Bauch,

Jakob Rosenberg Jakob Rosenberg (September 5, 1893 – April 7, 1980) was an art historian, museum curator, and educator who is noted particularly for published work on Rembrandt. He was active in Germany until his 1937 emigration to the United States, where he ...

and

.Catalo
pAn Amsterdam
1998, p.11-17 The Rembrandt Research project seeks to avoid such arguments by making attributions based on historical and forensic evidence. The study of Rembrandt's oevre includes study of drawings and etchings as well as paintings by a wide range of artists who were Rembrandt's contemporaries. Analysis of his techniques includes the study of paints and panel wood he and his contemporaries used, while x-rays of paintings reveal whether a painting is a copy based on the amount of "discovery" drawing in the underlayer. The pAn 1998 catalog contains an article by

Ernst van de Wetering Ernst van de Wetering (9 March 1938 – 11 August 2021) was a Dutch art historian and an expert on Rembrandt and his work. Background Ernst van de Wetering was born in Hengelo. He was first trained as an artist at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts ...

with photos of other depictions of the same man by

Gerard Dou Gerrit Dou (; 7 April 1613 – 9 February 1675), also known as Gerard Douw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painting, Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre s ...

, and Jacques Rousseau (thus the mis-attribution). The man has clearly the same face in all four portraits.

Rembrandt's father

According to Van de Wetering, this is the man often referred to as ''Rembrandt's father'', who was probably not his father, but a functionary in the Leiden painters' guild or male model. File:Rembrand-oude man met tulband-rrp.jpg, ''Old man with turban'', Rembrandt, c. 1625 File:Jan Lievens - Sultan Soliman.jpg, ''Sultan Soliman'', Lievens, c. 1625 File:Jan Adriaensz van Staveren - man in tulband.jpg, Old man with turban, Jan Adriaensz Staveren File:Man in an Oriental Costume - Isaac de Jouderville.jpg, ''Man in an Oriental Costume'',

Isaac de Jouderville Isaac de Jouderville (1612 in Leiden – 1645 in Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was a pupil of Rembrandt. Biography De Jouderville was an orphan whose parents had come from Metz. He became a pupil of Rembrandt in November 162 ...

End

In early 2011, the RRP board voted to terminate the project by the end of 2011 even though approximately one-quarter of Rembrandt's oeuvre has not yet been investigated. A major reason for this decision was the lack of scholars available to assume responsibilities from the RRP's chair,

, who has been involved with the project since 1968. Other reasons cited included lack of funding, as the

Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research The Dutch Research Council (NWO, Dutch: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) is the national research council of the Netherlands. NWO funds thousands of top researchers at universities and institutes and steers the course o ...

ceased funding the project in 1998. Funding from the

Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger ...

, the

and the

Mauritshuis The Mauritshuis (, ; ) is an art museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 854 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collection contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van ...

launched a pilot initiative called th
Rembrandt Database
to supplement research from the RRP.

References

Bibliography

* ''A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings IV: The Self-Portraits'' (Rembrandt Research Project Foundation), Ernst van de Wetering, 2005

External links

Ernst van de Wetering in Google books
{{ACArt Art history Research institutes in the Netherlands *