<IMG BORDER=0 SRC="http://www.lonvig.dk/artblog-23-rembrandt-old-man-index.jpg" ALT="artblog-23-rembrandt-old-man-index (3k image)" align="left" HEIGHT=108 WIDTH=88><IMG BORDER=0 SRC="http://www.lonvig.dk/artblog-23-rembrandt-crusader-index.jpg" ALT="artblog-23-rembrandt-crusader-index (3k image)" hspace="7" align="left" HEIGHT=108 WIDTH=88>A few years ago I rushed out of a room in Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

Gesticulating to my family, there are three Rembrandts - hanging side by side inside that room!!

Come, come, come.

"Who is Rembradt?", one said.

I believe it was in order to joke about my enthusiasm.<br clear=all>

At an exhibition at the National Gallery in Denmark - in Danish it's called <a href="http://www.smk.dk/">Statens Museum for Kunst</a> - there is an exhibition titled "Rembrandt? The Master and his Workshop".

It takes place 4 February - 14 May 2006.

At this exhibition there are 100 Rembrandts!

There are 19 paintings and then prints and drawings by Rembrandt.

As I entered into the dark room with one spotlight on each Rembradt my enthusiasm was transformed into thankfulness and humility.

Thankfulness and humility due to the fact that I was blessed to experience this.

Contributions and loans from the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Mauritshuis in the Hague, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the National Gallery in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and more made this unique event possible.

An experience of a lifetime.

The bare presence of 100 Rembrandts in one museum was far from the only highlight.<br><br><span style="font-weight:bold;">2 genuine Rembrandts found in Copenhagen.</span>

The National Gallery in Copenhagen found two genuine Rembrandt paintings by the master himself in their archives.

Two paintings that have lived a life of obscurity in the collections at the National Gallery after having been rejected as genuine Rembrandts at different points during the 20th century.

As soon as I came home from the exhibition I took a close look at my own archives.

But unfortunately I found no Rembrandts.

The 2 paintings are now reattributed to Rembrandt. After three years of studies conducted in close co-operation with international experts, The National Gallery is in a position to conclude that in addition to a rich collection of prints and drawings by Rembrandt, the museum also owns two genuine paintings by the master himself.

Below you can study the two reattributed Rembrandts.<br><br><br><a href="http://www.lonvig.dk/rembrandt-the-old-man.htm"><IMG BORDER=0 SRC="http://www.lonvig.dk/artblog-23-old-man-rembrandt-smk.jpg" ALT="artblog-23-old-man-rembrandt-smk (12k image)" hspace="10" align="left" HEIGHT=250 WIDTH=203><span style="font-weight:bold;"></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Study of an Old Man in Profile,</span></span> c. 1630

approximately 20 x 25 cm - that's 8" x 10"

oil on canvas

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)

You <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">must</span></span> click on the painting. I have made a large image available, so that you can enjoy it yourself.

The small Study of an Old Man in Profile is find made by Karl Madsen at Fredensborg Castle, where he discovered the painting in a storage in 1899. However, Rembrandt scholars doubted this attribution from as far back as 1933 onwards. Their doubts were mainly caused by the coarse style of painting. The scholars of the time found it difficult to reconcile this coarseness with what they thought of as the typically very meticulous and carefully finished style of Rembrandt's early works. Recent art history has, however, pointed out that even during the earliest stage of his career - the years spent painting in his native town of Leiden - Rembrandt experimented with broader and more varied brushstrokes. Like other works by the young Rembrandt, this small painting appears to be a practice piece. X-ray studies bear out this theory by showing us that the old man's head was painted on top of another head that appears in several of Rembrandt's paintings from those years. At the same time, studies of the wooden panel show that the wood can be traced back to Rembrandt in terms of both geography and time.<br clear=all><br><br><a href="http://www.lonvig.dk/rembrandt-crusader.htm"><IMG BORDER=0 SRC="http://www.lonvig.dk/artblog-23-the-crusader-rembrandt-smk.jpg" ALT="artblog-23-the-crusader-rembrandt-smk (13k image)" hspace="10" align="left" HEIGHT=250 WIDTH=203></a><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">The Crusader,</span></span> c.1659-61

approximately 60 x 80 cm - that's 23" x 31"

oil on canvas

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)

You <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">must</span></span> click on the painting. I have made a large image available, so that you can enjoy it yourself.

In 1911 the Rembrandt connoisseur and then director of The National Gallery, Karl Madsen, found The Crusader in a remote corner of Fredensborg Castle where it had been placed in temporary storage. Despite Karl Madsen's evident enthusiasm for the painting, its status was soon called into question, and in 1969 it was rejected as a Rembrandt. The most recent studies now tell us that the painting is a sketch for The Knight with the Falcon (G