Young Man in a Black Beret

Artist Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606 - 1669)

Dateca. 1662

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 32 1/8 x 25 3/8 inches (81.6 x 64.45 cm)
Framed: 39 3/8 x 36 x 3 1/4 inches (100.01 x 91.44 x 8.26 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number31-75

Signedl.l.corner (in dark brown paint): "Rembrandt, f.1666"

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionAged about sixteen years; half-length portrait; no hands; life-sized. Subject turned to left, head almost full face, looking towards the observer. He wears a greenish-black cloak, a cap of the same color with a yellow band and a soft-pleated collar. Full light falls almost from the front. Brown background, fairly light in tone.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Works by Rembrandt, Royal Academy, London, Winter 1899, no. 96.

The Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, Detroit Institute of the Arts, May 2–31, 1930, no. 76.

43 Portraits, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, January 26–February 10, 1937, no. 15.

Style, Truth and the Portrait, Cleveland Museum of Art, October 1–November 10, 1963, no. 18.

Rembrandt: A Genius and his Impact, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, October 1–December 7 1997; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, December 17, 1997–February 15, 1998, no. 26.

Rembrandt and the Venetian influence, Salander–O'Reilly Galleries, New York, October–November 18, 2000, no. 3.

Rembrandt Rembrandt, Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan, November 3-January 3, 2002-2003.

Rembrandt in America, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, October 30, 2011–January 22, 2012; Cleveland Museum of Art, February 16–May 28, 2012; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, June 24–September 16, 2012, no. 38.

Rembrandt and Amsterdam Portraiture 1590-1670, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, February 18-August 30, 2020.

Gallery Label

Rembrandt was a painter, draftsman and etcher, and is considered to be the greatest of 17th-century Dutch artists. He was a master at manipulating the expressive potential of light and shadow, and his numerous portraits show a profound observation of character. Here, Rembrandt focuses our attention on this unidentified sitter's face by framing his head with a warm semicircle of light and crisp white collar. His gaze is directed at us with the confidence characteristic of his youth. The sitter's informal beret perhaps indicates that he is a student, a recent graduate or even an aspiring artist. Rembrandt has used the butt end of his brush to make incisions in the still-wet paint of the hair to provide a richer sense of texture.

Provenance

George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837), Petworth House, West Sussex, by 1836-1837 [1];

By descent to his son, Col. George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield (1787-1869), Petworth House, West Sussex, 1837-1869;

By descent to his son, Henry Wyndham, 2nd Baron Leconfield (1830-1901), Petworth House, West Sussex, 1869-1901;

By descent to his son, Charles Henry Wyndham, 3rd Baron Leconfield (1872-1952), Petworth House, West Sussex, 1901-October 19, 1927;

Purchased from Baron Leconfield by Duveen Brothers, London, and transferred to their New York branch, New York stock book 1928, no. 29448, October 19, 1927-1931;

Purchased from Duveen Brothers, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.

NOTES:

[1] Petworth House Archives, West Sussex Record Office, PHA 5272, MS. Catalogue of the pictures at Petworth House (1836-[1901]), no. 565, as Portrait of a youth, copy in the NAMA curatorial files.

Published References

Catalogue of Pictures in Petworth House, Sussex (London: Woodfall and Kinder, 1856), 60.

Eugène Dutuit, L’Oeuvre Complet de Rembrandt, vol. 2 (Paris: A. Lévy, 1885), no. 346, p. 46.

Wilhelm von Bode, Studien zur Geschichte der Holländischen Malerei (Braunschweig: Druck und Verlag Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1883), 591.

Alfred von Wurzbach, Rembrandt–Galerie: Eine Auswahl von hundert Gemälden Rembrandts (Stuttgart: Neff, 1886), unpaginated.

Émile Michel, Rembrandt: His Life, His Work and His Time, vol. 2 (London: William Heinemann, 1894), 236.

Wilhelm von Bode, The Complete Works of Rembrandt: History, Description and Heliographic Reproduction of All the Master’s Pictures with a Study of His Life and Art, trans. Florence Simmonds, vol. 7 (Paris: Charles Sedelmeyer, 1902), no. 497, pp. 55–57, (repro.).

Adolf Rosenberg, The Work of Rembrandt, reproduced in over five hundred illustrations (New York: Brentano, 1907), 385, (repro).

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Based on the Works of John Smith, ed. and trans. Edward G. Hawke, vol. 6 (London: Macmillan, 1916), no. 780, pp. 364–365.

C.H. Collins Baker, Catalogue of the Petworth Collection of Pictures in the Possession or Lord Leconfield (London: The Medici Society, 1920), 102, (repro.).

Wilhelm R. Valentiner, The Work of Rembrandt, reproduced in 643 Illustrations, 3^rd ed. (New York: Brentano’s, 1921), 509, (repro.).

The Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, exh. cat. (Detroit, MI: Detroit Institute of the Arts, 1930), unpaginated, (repro).

“Gift to Nelson Gallery: Sir Joseph Duveen Presents Carpeaux’s ‘Crouching Venus’,” Kansas City Star (April 3, 1931): 59.

“The Best of Rembrandt: Canvas to Nelson Gallery is lauded by H.W. Parsons,” Kansas City Times (April 3, 1931): unpaginated, (repro.).

“Dine with Art Trustees: Institute Board Bids Others to Annual Meeting Tonight,” Kansas City Times (April 4, 1931): unpaginated.

“Duveen Gives Statue to Buyer of Rembrandt,” New York Herald Tribune (April 4, 1931): unpaginated.

“Recent Purchase for Nelson Museum,” Kansas City Star (April 5, 1931): 64, (repro.).

The Art News 29 (April 11, 1931): 3, (repro.).

H.A. Bull, “Notes of the Month,” International Studio 98 (April 1931), 52.

“A Treasure Island of Art Masterpieces,” The Kansas City Visitor (October, 1931): unpaginated, (repro.).

Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Paintings in America (New York: S.W. Frankel, 1931), (repro.).

“Buying Power of the Nelson Art Fund has been Increased by Drop in Prices,” The Kansas City Star (May 22, 1933): unpaginated, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 23–24, 27, (repro.).

“Authenticity of Portrait in Art Gallery Upheld,” Kansas City Journal–Post (1935): 1–2.

“Portrait in Art Gallery Challenged,” Kansas City Journal–Post (1935): 1–2, (repro.).

“One of the most important purchases,” Musical Bulletin 24, no. 6 (March 1936): 11, as Youth with a Black Cap.

Abraham Bredius, ed., The Paintings of Rembrandt, vol. 1 (Vienna: Phaidon, 1936), 13, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 56, 63, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 79, (repro.).

John F. Schmidt, “Some Rembrandt in America,” Mennonite Life 11 (October 1956): 155, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 99, (repro.).

Rémy G. Saisselin, Style, Truth and the Portrait, exh. cat. (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1963), unpaginated.

Kurt Bauch, Rembrandt Gemälde (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1966), unpaginated, (repro.).

Horst Gerson, Rembrandt Paintings (Amsterdam: Muelenhoff International, 1968), 446–447, 504, (repro.).

Giovanni Arpino, L’Opera Pittorica Completa di Rembrandt (Milan: Rizzoli, 1969), no. 438, p. 124, (repro.).

Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings, 3^rd. ed., rev. Horst Gerson (London: Phaidon, 1969), no. 322, p. 249, 630, (repro.).

Michael Jaffé, “The Flemish and Dutch Schools,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 508, (repro.) [repr. in Denys Sutton, ed., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City (London: Apollo Magazine, 1972), 40, (repro.)].

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 119, (repro.).

J. Morse, Paintings in North America (New York: Abbeville, 1979), 232.

Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt: Zijn leven, zijn schilderijen (Maarssen, 1984), 339.

Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America (Washington D.C.: The Netherlands – American Amity Trust, 1986), 124.

Diane Loupe, “Nelson curator hunts for historical, aesthetic match of art and environment,” Kansas City Star (1987): 1C, 4C, (repro.).

Christian Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Color (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1993), no. 224, pp. 332, 417, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 129, 172, (repro.).

Albert Blankert, Rembrandt: A Genius and his Impact, exh. cat. (Melbourne: National Gallery Victoria, 1996), 178, 179, (repro.).

Rembrandt and the Venetian influence, exh. cat. (New York: Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, 2000), 69, (repro.).

Jeroen Giltay and Shinji Hata, Rembrandt, Rembrandt, exh. cat. (Wolfratshausen: Edition Minerva, 2003), 180-181, (repro.).

Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt: A Life in 180 Paintings (Amsterdam: Local World BV, 2008), 194, (repro.).

Dennis P. Weller, George S. Keyes and Tom Rassieur, Rembrandt in America: Collecting and Connoisseurship, exh. cat. (New York: Skira Rizzoli, 2011), 77, 79, 134, 136, 193, (repro.).

Henry Adams, “Master of Mystery,” Art and Antiques (June 2012): 59, (repro.).

Ernst van de Wetering, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6, Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited–A Complete Survey (Dordrecht: Springer, 2015), no. 300, pp. 444, 445, 672, (repro.).

Volker Manuth, Marieke de Winkel and Rudie van Leeuwen, Rembrandt: The Complete Paintings (Cologne: Taschen, 2019), 449, (repro.), as Portrait of a Young Man with a Black Cap.

Julian Zugazagoitia and Laura Spencer. Director's Highlights: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Celebrating 90 Years, ed. Kaitlyn Bunch (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), 20, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.