Rembrandt, 'A Bearded Man in a Cap', late 1650s

A Bearded Man in a Cap

Rembrandt

Room 22

About the work

Overview

This melancholy image of an old man lost in thought is one of a group of studies made by Rembrandt in the 1650s. They were not portraits of individuals – the identity of the sitter wouldn‘t have been considered relevant, either to the artist or the person who bought the painting. They were known as tronies (literally ’heads‘) and represented a type of person rather than an individual.

This painting used to be known as ’A Jewish Rabbi', probably because his divided, square-cut beard and his exotic hat, which was not typical of everyday dress at the time, suggest that he might be Jewish. But the title was given in the nineteenth century and there is no evidence that the man depicted was a rabbi. In fact, the same man seems to have sat as a model in several other works made during this period, and the hat was probably a studio prop.

In-depth

This is not a portrait of an individual person in the way we understand the idea today – the identity of the sitter wouldn‘t have been considered relevant, either to the artist or the person who bought the painting. Instead it falls into the category of tronies (literally ’heads‘). These were understood to represent a ’type‘ of person rather than an individual, and they were valued as a demonstration of the artist’s skill at portraying different characters and particular facial expressions in a convincing way.

It is one of a group of such studies, almost certainly made from life, by Rembrandt in the 1650s. However, we can’t be absolutely sure of the date of this one. While the first three figures painted onto the canvas are clear (’165‘), the last digit is very faint. It could conceivably be the remains of a 3, but more likely the date is 1657. The free use of the brush, the deep background shadows, the very limited palette of browns and ochres and the way the painter has concentrated on the detail of the face, eyes and beard while only sketching in the rest of the picture are all consistent with Rembrandt’s style for the late 1650s and 1660s.

Sometime in the mid-nineteenth century the painting was given the title ’A Jewish Rabbi‘, probably because the man’s divided, square-cut beard and his exotic hat, which was not typical of everyday dress at the time, suggest that he might be Jewish. Rembrandt lived near the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam and painted several portraits of Jews, and the same man also seems to have been used by the artist as a model for the so-called Portrait of a Rabbi, 1657 (Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco). However, there’s no evidence that the title ’A Jewish Rabbi' was used before 1844, when the National Gallery bought the painting. The man also seems to have sat as a model in other works which Rembrandt made during the 1650s and 1660s, including Aristotle contemplating the Bust of Homer (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and A Bearded Man (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg). The hat also seems to be the same one used in other paintings by Rembrandt, including his own Self Portrait at the Age of 34. Far from being the hat worn by an individual rabbi, it was probably a studio prop used when Rembrandt was trying to evoke a sense of history or exotic dress in a painting.

This painting caught the attention of the great eighteenth-century portraitist Thomas Gainsborough, who made a copy of it in about 1770 (Royal Collection, London).

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Bearded Man in a Cap
Artist: Rembrandt
Artist dates: 1606 - 1669
Date made: late 1650s
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 78 × 66.7 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1844
Inventory number: NG190
Location: Room 22
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Jeremiah Harman

Provenance

In the collection of the Duke of Argyll before 1781; Duke of Argyll sale, London, 25–26 May 1798 (lot 104). It was in Jeremiah Harman’s collection, Woodford by 1836; Jeremiah Harman sale, London, 17–18 May 1844 (lot 23), bought by Henry Farrer (410 gns) for the National Gallery.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1830

J. Smith, 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 […], vol. 2, London 1830
1893

É. Michel, Rembrandt, sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps, Paris 1893
1897

W. von Bode and C. Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of Rembrandt, 8 vols, Paris 1897
1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1956

O. Benesch, 'Worldly and Religious Portraits in Rembrandt's Late Art', Art Quarterly, XIX, 1956, pp. 335-54
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1988

D. Bomford et al., Rembrandt (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 12 October 1988 - 17 January 1989), London 1988
1989

J. Mills and R. White, 'Paint Media Analyses', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIII, 1989, pp. 69-71
1989

C. Wright, Dutch Painting in the Seventeenth Century: Images of a Golden Age in British Collections (exh. cat. Birmingham CMuseum and Art Gallery, 7 October 1989 - 14 January 1990), London 1989
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1991

J. Held, 'Aristotle', in J. Held, Rembrandt Studies, Princeton 1991, pp. 15-55
1993

C. Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour, Antwerp 1993
1995

A.K. Wheelock, Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century, Washington 1995
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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