Rembrandt in the Blood

February 27, 2019 2:28 PM

The controversial potential discovery of two previously-unknown Rembrandts by the direct descendant of one of his portrait subjects, Jan Six XI, who literally grew up surrounded by Golden Age Dutch art.

A soft-focus look at the Six Collection and a more pointed one.

The relationship between Rembrandt and Jan Six (the first).

High-quality images from the Rijksmuseum, home of a number of the best-known Rembrandts

Previously, in the world of art, attribution, and aristocracy:

A lost Da Vinci? The Salvator Mundi

"I could taste the fraud": the perils of art forgery

posted by praemunire (10 comments total)

Rembrandt in the Blood

I think they've got drugs to control that now.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:54 PM on February 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've really been meaning to visit the Six collection, which you can do by private arrangement. Thanks for this.
posted by humboldt32 at 3:46 PM on February 27, 2019

When I was working on my book about the history of Amsterdam, Six invited me here and conducted a remarkable little demonstration. He turned off the lights and lit candles, and in an instant the paintings were transformed. They took on new energy; the golds and reds and flesh tones became warmer. The flicker of the flames seemed to breathe life into the two-dimensional figures. Six’s eyes gleamed as he saw that I had registered the point: These paintings were made for candlelight.

Huh. Of course!

A few years ago, we visited the Rijksmuseum and walking into the room with the Night Watch was one of those “Ohhh. Holy shit. This is why this guy’s paintings are such a big deal” moments.

Thanks for this post.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:49 PM on February 27, 2019 [20 favorites]

The museum guard caught my two year old brother just before he crashed into The Nightwatch. It was in the morning, no one was around in 1960. My baby brother saw the painting and while we were in awe, he accelerated trying to run inside the world of that painting. We were all in shock, the guard had him gently up in his arms.
posted by Oyéah at 4:56 PM on February 27, 2019 [18 favorites]

Oh and, this is a fantastic article, as rich in invaluable detail, as a Rembrant. Incredible, the eyes through time.
posted by Oyéah at 5:02 PM on February 27, 2019

The discovery that upended Jan Six’s life occurred one day in November 2016

Yeah join that club
posted by schadenfrau at 5:04 PM on February 27, 2019 [23 favorites]

This was a fantastic read. The Norton Simon here in LA has a Rembrandt portrait through Monday and I'm inspired to go pay it a visit this weekend.
posted by Aubergine at 6:02 PM on February 27, 2019

The bit about viewing the Rembrandts by candlelight was something I actually hadn't considered, yet it makes a lot of sense, insofar as looking at the paintings after the sun has gone down goes. It immediately reminded me of what makes all the nighttime interior scenes in Barry Lyndon so captivating, and makes me wonder if museums shouldn't try to reproduce such lighting conditions from time-to-time, just to give patrons a deeper appreciation of pre-electric-lighting artworks and the actual conditions they were viewed in.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:11 AM on February 28, 2019 [6 favorites]

I've been to the Six house where you can see their two Rembrandts on the wall. It is amazing to see them in someone's private home. They have other interesting dutch paintings too and a collection of random stuff (a Key to the City of San Francisco!) but everyone wants to see the Rembrandts.

They actually have them right by a window facing the street. So if you just stop for a moment on your bike and look up you can see their Rembrandt. I tried taking a photo but the reflections from this angle are not good. If you look in the left window you can see the right hand side of the gold frame around a Rembrandt painting, though
posted by vacapinta at 7:06 AM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

The story of his recognizing the Rembrandt is the sort of thing that makes the hair on my arm stand on end. Sometimes the art world can seem arbitrary and silly in its lionizations and determinations. But recognizing Rembrandt's genius feels right, and recognizing it in an unlabeled painting is pretty dang cool.
posted by ldthomps at 1:03 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]