For a painter, with fame and recognition come copies and forgeries. Shortly after he died in 1669, works attributed to him or bearing a false signature started to appear. It would get worse. As soon as the painters of his day died out, anything vaguely resembling a Rembrandt fell victim to an early form of identity theft. The names of other painters would be scratched out and replaced with fake Rembrandt signatures. The result was that some painters of Rembrandt's time did not seem to have ever painted anything at all, because all their paintings were attributed to Rembrandt. It was the Rembrandt vacuum-cleaner effect. If it vaguely looked like a Rembrandt, it became a Rembrandt. Copies were also sold as originals and countless forgers produced paintings in the Rembrandt style.
In New York alone, US Customs records show that 9,482 Rembrandts were imported in the US between 1800 and 1850. By 1860, between Europe and the US, perhaps as many as 15,000 collectors and institutions believed they owned an original and authentic Rembrandt painting. Eventually, some art scholars went to work and by the late 1800s the list of authentic Rembrandts stood at around 1,000. Then, Valentiner reduced it to 690. Abraham Bredius went over all the Rembrandts again and by 1935 we were down to 639. Gerson continued cleaning up and arrived at a reduced total of 419 authentic Rembrandt paintings in 1968.
This same year, a small group of six historians known as members of the Rembrandt Research Project, embarked once again on the project of reviewing all of the works attributed to Rembrandt, as well as those attributed to his students, followers and studio. Within a relatively short time, traveling in teams of two they looked at all 600 works, worldwide.
The project received great publicity when the first two of the projected five reports were published but it started to run into controversy with the publication of volume 3. By then, 122 paintings formerly attributed to Rembrandt and another 12 on which the research team could not reach an agreement had been rejected.
Criticism of the Rembrandt Project reached hysterical proportions when advance reports were made public, of what the conclusions of the next 2 and final volumes would be. A reassessment of the entire Rembrandt oeuvre was in the works.
At this point, opposition to the Rembrandt research Project became so strong that in a growing number of articles, studies and lectures, the conclusions of the research Projects were taken apart, dissected and rejected. Four out of the five members (one had died) of the Rembrandt Research Project resigned together, saying they couldn't agree as to how to proceed. Volumes 4 and 5 were not published.
The reality of what happened is not that the RRP (Rembrandt Research Project) members were being overzealous, but former “Rembrandt” owners were very upset to find out that their work wasn’t as valuable. Some prestigious museums were told that five or six of their Rembrandts were not Rembrandts, and therefore had lost out on a great deal of money and made them look less reputable. This is to say that opposition to the RRP was largely the result of wanting to protect investments, reputations and pride. Basically, those who had a "Rembrandt" banded together and gangged up on the six RRP experts.
A fact rarely mentioned, is that the RRP, or its former members, have approved and authenticated new Rembrandts, such as the Irish owned Hot Cockles (La Main Chaude) and a couple others. This demonstrates, if need be, that the RRP was not out to slash Rembrandts and to reject authentic ones, for the sake of it.
Authentic Rembrandt paintings now stand at barely 300.
You may well own a Rembrandt, particularly if no one ever thought your painting was a Rembrandt; several have been re-discovered and authenticated in the past few years. On the other hand, if your family has had a "Rembrandt" since the 1800s you could be in for some bad news, the next time someone goes through the list again. |
