Obituary: Ernst van de Wetering could spot a Rembrandt anywhere

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Ernst van de Wetering was glad of any firm authentication, not because it proved him right, but because it did justice to Rembrandt—and would help the public look at his painting with fresh eyes

It was not a self-portrait, he would explain, but a, a mirror-study in which the artist was practising how to catch human expressions or strange effects of light. His favourite in the Rijks-museum was the “Self-portrait with dishevelled hair”, in which the young Rembrandt was broodingly lit from behind. He also loved a tinynow in the Getty Museum, called “Rembrandt laughing”, painted when the artist was 22 and in Leiden .

This caused alarm and confusion among curators, but also brought him a surge of fame. Two or three times a week someone would contact him to say they had a possible Rembrandt hanging in the lounge or the bedroom, attaching a blurry photo, and he would take a look. This could be annoying, and he talked seriously of blocking any e-mails with “Rembrandt” in them, but then he would relent. Thanks to those lazy random callers, no fewer than eight originals had finally turned up.

Under his guidance, Rembrandt’s paintings were analysed by every method science could devise. After simple-rays, to detect not only underpainting but the weave of the canvas and the presence of lead pigments, he might call in infra-red reflectography, raking-light photography, dendrochronology and gas chromatography.

Tracing Rembrandt’s hand was one thing. It was harder, though, to track his thinking. The master loved certain themes and kept returning to them, evidently because they would sell and he had to make a living; but sometimes, as in his various versions of “The supper at Emmaus”, to kindle devotion in the viewer.

 

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