ARembrandt painting that was thought to be fake and was stashed in a basement for decades may in fact be genuine, according to experts who believe it was painted on wood from the same tree as other 17th century masterpieces.
“Head of a Bearded Man” was bequeathed to the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum in 1951, but the Rembrandt Research Project, a leading authority on the Dutch painter’s works, determined in 1982 that it was merely one of a number of copies.
Now, an expert has said that the wood panel on which it was painted came from the same tree used for Rembrandt’s “Andromeda Chained to the Rocks” and Jan Lievens’ “Portrait of Rembrandt’s Mother” — two works dating to 1630 that were painted when the two artists were working in Leiden.
The portrait is one of a number of dismissed Rembrandt works that have been recently re-attributed to the artist. It means the tiny painting is very likely to have come from Rembrandt’s workshop, and may even have been crafted by the Dutch master himself.