A painting that disappeared from view during the 1960s and hasn’t been seen by the public since then is a bona fide Rembrandt, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum said on Monday.
Titled Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, the painting was produced in 1633 and was initially discredited by scholars well-versed in Rembrandt’s oeuvre. But following a two-year study of the paint used to make the work, experts with the Rijksmuseum found that it was, in fact, by the Dutch Old Master.
It is a surprising revelation, and one that is significant, given that news of the attribution was announced by the museum that holds The Night Watch (1642), one of Rembrandt’s masterpieces.
Vision of Zacharias in the Temple predates The Night Watch by about nine years, placing the former work in the early stages of Rembrandt’s career. It depicts Zacharias, a Jewish priest who, in the New Testament, is visited by the Archangel Gabriel and told that he will bear a son.
In typical fashion for Rembrandt, Vision of Zacharias in the Temple is dominated by black darkness. Light pouring in from the upper righthand corner symbolizes the arrival of Gabriel—a figure notably not depicted here by Rembrandt, who instead represents him as an emanation. The yellow illumination then goes on to bounce of Zachariah’s golden robes.
Biblical scenes like this one were common for Rembrandt, who is also famed for The Return of the Prodigal Son, a 1669 painting widely regarded as a late-career triumph. Unlike The Return of the Prodigal Son, one of the star attractions of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Vision of Zacharias in the Temple languished in obscurity.
According to the Rijksmuseum, a collector—one the institution did not identify by name—bought the work in 1961, one year after the painting had officially been declared not to be a Rembrandt. That collector then stowed away the painting, the museum said, and kept it private for many years thereafter.
Sixty-five years later, the collector then approached the Rijksmuseum to have the painting examined. The institution utilized the same techniques it recently applied to The Night Watch and discovered that the painting’s materials match the ones used in others by Rembrandt from the same era. The museum said it had also authenticated the signature and the 1633 date denoted within the painting.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, 1633.
René Gerritsen/Private Collection
“It’s wonderful that people can now learn more about the young Rembrandt – he created this very poignant work shortly after moving from Leiden to Amsterdam,” Taco Dibbits, the Rijksmuseum’s director, said in a statement. It is a beautiful example of the unique way Rembrandt depicts stories.”
The Rijksmuseum will now exhibit the painting to the public starting on Wednesday. The work has not officially entered the museum’s collection, however: the Rijksmuseum said in a release that the painting is on long-term loan from its owner.
The announcement is a rarity—newly discovered Rembrandts do not often emerge. And yet it is not even the only Rembrandt to emerge this year. In February, a Dutch woman revealed that she was in possession of 35 etchings by Rembrandt. The prints will go on view at the Musea Zutphen, in the Dutch town where the woman’s family resides, later this month.
