Old man with a divided fur cap.

During his lifetime, Rembrandt's extraordinary skills as a printmaker were the main source of his international fame. Unlike his oil paintings, prints travelled light and were relatively cheap. For this reason, they soon became very popular with collectors not only within, but also beyond the borders of the Netherlands, and it also explains why, three centuries later, they were affordable for Wellington collector and philanthropist Sir John Ilott, who presented 37 Rembrandt prints to the National Art Gallery between 1952 and 1969.

In the years after 1630, Rembrandt made a series of red chalk drawings of imposing old men. Some of these subjects were later used in paintings of biblical subjects or of meditating old men. This series of chalk drawings is connected with several etchings by Rembrandt, seven of which including this work are currently in Te Papa's collection. These are known as <em>tronies</em>, the Dutch word at the time for a face. Typically these are heads or busts only, concentrating on the facial expression, but often half-length when featured in an exotic costume. <em>Tronies</em> might be based on studies from life or use the features of actual sitters. Both paintings and prints of this kind were sold on the art market without identification of the sitter, and were not commissioned and retained by the sitter as portraits normally were. Rembrandt's tronies were among his most popular and widely imitated prints.

The old man depicted here is probably the same model who sat for a number of figure studies of the same period. He looks distinguished and wealthy in his fur cap, a Polish kutschma, and cloak, belying the probably impoverished reality. Rembrandt experts have pointed out the similarity of this etching to a small red chalk drawing in the Fodor Museum in Amsterdam.

Among Rembrandt's fantasy portraits of old men, this is one of the most fully developed. This patriarch could have stepped right from the pages of one of his beloved Bible stories. The rhetorical bearing of this exotic figure invites the question: was this image related to contemporary presentations on the stage?

Te Papa's impression is the first of two states, made from Rembrandt's plate and before its complete reworking in mezzotint (possibly by Pieter Louw, 1725-1800).

References: New Hollstein Dutch 182, 1st of 2 states; Hollstein Dutch 265, 2nd of 2 states.

See: Minneapolis Institute of Art, https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55369/old-man-with-a-divided-fur-cap-rembrandt-harmensz-van-rijn

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art    August 2017