''The Shipbuilder and his Wife'' is a 1633 painting by

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 cons ...

. The sitters were identified in 1970 as Jan Rijcksen (1560/2–1637) and his wife Griet Jans Rijcksen. Rijcksen was a shareholder in the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

, and became its master shipbuilder in 1620. The painting has been in the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

since 1811. At this relatively early date, Rembrandt was accomplished at depicting the natural surfaces of wood, leather, skin, and hair, and he had become a fashionable portrait painter. Rather than making the usual pair of separate husband-and-wife paintings, like his more typical ''

Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair ''Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair'' is a painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt, painted in 1633. It hangs in the Taft Museum of Art of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The oil-on-canvas portrait measures . It is signed and dated 1633, ...

'' and '' Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan'', Rembrandt combined them into a single double portrait, with the two sitters interacting. Rijcksen is shown seated as a desk, where he has been making drawings of ship designs, holding a pair of compasses; his wife has just entered the room to hand her husband a written note. The letter shown in the painting is addressed to "Jan ryensz" ic The drawing of a ship shown in the painting bears the signature and date: "Rembrandt. f: / 1633" This portrait is among the best documented of Rembrandt's works. It was recorded in the estate of the sitters' son Cornelis Jansz. Reijckx at his death in November 1659, and at two sales in Amsterdam: the sale of the collection of

Jan Gildemeester Jan Gildemeester Jansz. ( Lisbon, 1744 – Amsterdam, 1799) was a Dutch art collector. Biography Jan's parents had moved to the Netherlands a few years after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. He lived with his father in a house on the Keizersgracht i ...

in June 1800 to , and when it was sold again in August 1810. It was imported to England and sold at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

in London in 1811 to the

Prince Regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illne ...

(later King George IV) and remains in the

. The oil on canvas painting measures but it may have been cut down from a larger work: an early etching dated 1800 shows more space above the sitters' heads.

References

''The Shipbuilder and his Wife''
Royal Collection
''A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings: Volume II: 1631–1634''
J. Bruyn, B. Haak, S. H. Levie, P. J. J. van Thiel, pp. 367–377
''Portrait of the shipbuilder Jan Rijcksen and his wife Griet Jans'', 1633
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 ...

933. ''The Shipbuilder and his Wife''
in Hofstede de Groot, 1914 {{DEFAULTSORT:Shipbuilder and his Wife, The

Shipbuilder Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

1633 paintings 17th-century portraits

See also

References