''The Scholar at the Lectern'' or ''The Father of the Jewish Bride'' is a 1641

oil on panel A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not pain ...

painting by the Dutch artist

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 ...

. With '' The Girl in a Picture Frame'' (also known as ''The Jewish Bride'') and '' Landscape with the Good Samaritan'', it is one of only three Rembrandt paintings in Polish collections. It is currently located at the Royal Castle in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Description

The sitter wears a black hat, a grey-brown cloak with a hint of green, lined with dark brown fur, and a gold chain. The subject of old scholars and philosophers is popular in Rembrandt's oeuvre. The face of the man in picture is distinctive because of specific details such as the wart on the left cheek and the red nose, suggesting a concrete sitter. The picture is painted on poplar panel. The Royal Castle paintings are therefore two of five examples where Rembrandt or his workshop might have used poplar panels.

probably bought a small batch of such panels ''c''. 1639–41 and experimented with them.

History and provenance

King

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski (), was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuani ...

bought it and '' The Girl in a Picture Frame'' in 1777 from Elżbieta Henrietta Maria Gołowkin (daughter of Friedrich Paul von Kameke) via the art dealer Jakob Triebel. He initially displayed them at the

Łazienki Palace The Palace on the Isle (), also known as the Baths Palace (), is a classicist palace in Warsaw's Royal Baths Park, the city's largest park, occupying over 76 hectares of the city center. From 1674 this palace and the nearby Ujazdów Castle belong ...

and after his death they both passed to

Józef Poniatowski Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski (; 7 May 1763 – 19 October 1813) was a Polish general, minister of war and army chief, who became a Marshal of the French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. A nephew of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lit ...

who in 1813 left them to his sister Maria Teresa Poniatowska. In 1815 they were bought by Kazimierz Rzewuski, who gave them to his daughter Ludwika, wife of Antoni Lanckoroński. The

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

seized it during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, but in 1947 it was returned to its rightful owners and taken to

Hohenems Hohenems (High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Ems'') is a town in the Austrian States of Austria, state of Vorarlberg in the Dornbirn (district), Dornbirn district. It lies in the middle of the Austrian part of the Rhine valley. With a populat ...

Castle near Vaduz,

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...

and later - in 1950 - placed in a Swiss bank vault. It was next exhibited in 1994 in an exhibition of the family's artworks at the

Royal Castle, Warsaw The Royal Castle in Warsaw ( ) is a state museum and a List of Historic Monuments (Poland), national historical monument, which formerly served as the official Castle, royal residence of several List of Polish rulers, Polish monarchs. The person ...

, after which Karolina Lanckorońska donated the painting to the Royal Castle. It was considered lost after

and doubts on its authorship first appeared in 1969. It was not included in the 1989 edition of the

Rembrandt Research Project The Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) was an initiative of the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), which is the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. Its purpose was to organize and categorize research on Remb ...

. In 1994 Karolina Lanckorońska donated both it and '' The Girl in the Picture Frame'' to the

, where they still hang. The Project accessed them and their authorship was confirmed in February 2006.

Analysis

In 1769 the painting was called the ''Bride’s Father Writing Down the Dowry''. Later, when the painting was in the Stanisław August collection, it was referred to as the ''Father of the Jewish Bride'' or other such variations. These titles suggest a thematic connection between ''The Scholar at the Lectern'' and '' The Girl in a Picture Frame''. They also assume that the paintings were companion pieces, possibly because they were executed in the same year, are of the same size and use the same type of support. They were not in fact painted as a pair. Pairs of portraits painted by Rembrandt were always composed according to the following rule: the male portrait on the left, the female on the right, therefore contrary to the Royal Castle paintings. In terms of composition, ''The Scholar at the Lectern'' and '' The Girl in a Picture Frame'' do not share the same scheme: the scale of the figures and their setting differ. Had the paintings been intended as a pair, both of them would have been portrayed within a feigned frame, as was the case of other portraits. The portraits of Agatha Bas and her husband Nicolaes van Bambeeck are a good example; they date from 1641 and are in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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 List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...

and

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Musées Royaux B.-A. respectively.

References

Bibliography

*J. Czernichowska
''Two paintings by Rembrandt''
* Dorota Juszczak, Hanna Małachowicz, ''Galeria Lanckorońskich. Obrazy z daru Profesor Karoliny Lanckorońskiej dla Zamku Królewskiego w Warszawie'', Warszawa 1998 *https://www.zamek-krolewski.pl/zwiedzanie/archiwum-wystaw-czasowych/portrety.-rembrandt-i...
Two Rembrandts in the Royal Castle

External links