Portrait of Gerard de Lairesse
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''Portrait of Gerard de Lairesse'' is a 1665–1667 oil-on-canvas painting by Rembrandt. It shows the painter
Gerard de Lairesse Gerard or Gérard (de) Lairesse (11 September 1641 – June 1711) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist. His broad range of skills included music, poetry, and theatre. De Lairesse was influenced by the Perugian Cesare Ripa and Fr ...
holding a paper. It is in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.


Description

This portrait came into the collection via the
Robert Lehman Robert Owen Lehman, Sr. (September 29, 1891 – August 9, 1969) was an American banker, longtime head of the Lehman Brothers investment bank, and a racehorse owner, art collector, and philanthropist. Life and career Lehman was born to a Jewish ...
bequest. This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1914, who wrote:
658. GERARD DE LAIRESSE (September 11, 1640-July 21, 1711), painter. Three-quarter length; life size. He sits in an arm-chair, turned to the left and looking at the spectator. His left hand, which rests on the arm of the chair, holds a paper. His right hand is thrust into the coat at his breast. His rich curls fall on his broad and smooth white collar, which has two tassels. He wears a dark coat with a black cloak over it, and a large broad-brimmed felt hat. The identification suggested by Schmidt Degener rests on the great similarity between this portrait and that of the artist's portrait in Houbraken's '' Groote Schouburgh''. Further evidence may be found in the fact that Lairesse, like the sitter, is said to have been a syphilitic; cf. Houbraken, i. 285. Signed, "Rembrandt f. 1663" (or 1665, according to Degener); canvas, 44 1/2 inches by 34 1/2 inches. Mentioned by Bode, ''Jahrbuch der Koniglichen Preussischen Kunst-Sammlungen'', xxix. p. 181; F. Schmidt Degener, ''Onze Kunst'', xxiii. 1913, i. p. 117. Exhibited in Berlin, 1909, No. 110. ''Sales.'' Amsterdam, June 16, 1802, No. 144 (94 florins, Lafontaine). London, June 13, 1807, No. 16 (£25 : 4s.). London, about 1908. In the possession of Lewis and Simmons, London. In the collection of Leopold Koppel, Berlin.658. Gerard de Lairesse (September 11, 1640--July 21, 1711), painter
in Hofstede de Groot, 1914
Koppel still owned the painting in 1935 when he was forced to divest all of his interests due to the
Aryanization Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...
of German businesses in Berlin under Hitler. According to the MET, the painting was consigned to M. Knoedler and Co, New York by Albert L. Koppel, on October 1, 1943. Knoedler subsequently purchased it from him on April 27, 1945, whereupon it was purchased by Robert Lehman.


Portraits of Gerard de Lairesse

The painting shows his syphilitic ''
saddle nose Saddle nose is a condition associated with nasal trauma, congenital syphilis, relapsing polychondritis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, cocaine abuse, and leprosy, among other conditions. The most common cause is nasal trauma. It is characteri ...
'', that was featured more prominently in the engraving Hofstede de Groot mentioned: File:Gerard de Lairesse - Self-Portrait Uffizi.jpg, Self-portrait in the
Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
File:Schouburg3 Plate E p110 13-Gerard de Laires 14-Bartolet.jpg, Houbraken: Bartholet Flemal (left) and De Lairesse (right) File:JCWeyerman Ee Gerard de Laires -Bartolet.jpg, Copy by Jacob Campo Weyerman File:Jean Baptiste Descamps-Gerard de Lairesse p101.gif, Copy of the bust portion (in reverse) by
Jean-Baptiste Descamps Jean-Baptiste Descamps (; August 28, 1714 – June 30, 1791) was a French writer on art and artists, and painter of village scenes. He later founded an academy of art and his son later became a museum curator. Biography Descamps was born in Du ...


References


External links


''Portrait of Gerard de Lairesse, ca. 1665-1667''
in the
RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...
{{Authority control (arts) de Lairesse 1650s paintings Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art de Lairesse