A few hitherto unseen and extraordinarily scarce Rembrandt portraits have been uncovered within a private British collection. These intimate artworks of the Dutch artist’s kin are projected to fetch between £5 million and £8 million ($6.25 million-$10 million) at an auction.
Signed and dated 1635, the artworks depict an aged couple, Rembrandt’s in-laws. The relatively small paintings, just under 8 inches in height, illustrate the affluent plumber Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and his spouse Jaapgen Carels. This couple hailed from a notable family in Leiden, a city in the Netherlands.
Their offspring, Dominicus van der Pluym, was wedded to Rembrandt’s cousin, Cornelia van Suytbroec. They had a single progeny, Karel van der Pluym, who likely received training from Rembrandt and named the artist’s only living heir, Titus, in his testament.
In the year these portraits were made, 1635, the subjects procured a garden adjacent to the one owned by Rembrandt’s mother in Leiden.
Christie’s auction house, in charge of the sale, highlighted in a press release the “remarkable, nearly undisturbed lineage” of these portraits. The paintings remained within the family of the models till 1760, the year following Marten ten Hove’s demise, the couple’s great-grandson. The artworks then went to Warsaw, entering Count Vincent Potocki’s private collection, briefly the Baron d’Ivry collection in Paris in 1820, followed by James Murray, the 1st Baron Glenlyon.
In 1824, Murray decided to auction the artworks at Christie’s, which described them as “Rembrandt – very spirited and finely coloured.” After this sale, the paintings stayed within the same British family’s private collection, remaining unnoticed by art experts. The present owners have chosen to stay anonymous.
In a telephonic interview with CNN, Henry Pettifer, from Christie’s, disclosed that this discovery occurred a few years back during a “routine valuation of the house contents.” He explained that the paintings instantly sparked substantial interest, surprising the owners, who had no prior expectations from these artworks.
Following the initial discovery, Pettifer and his team conducted extensive research at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, where the portraits underwent scientific examination. Pettifer was stunned that these paintings were utterly unknown, having never been referenced in any 19th or 20th-century Rembrandt literature.
It was only through diligent research at the Rijksmuseum that the identities of the portrait subjects were authenticated. Pettifer described the paintings as “small, very intimate, very spontaneous,” suggesting a close bond with the artist.
According to Pettifer, these are the smallest known portraits painted by Rembrandt. They will be displayed in New York and Amsterdam the following month, then return to London for a pre-sale exhibition, and the auction is set for July 6.
