subject: Works of Art From Laughter [print this page] Works of Art From Laughter Works of Art From Laughter
For the portrait, a value of $3,100 was set by the auction house because they thought they had a knockoff of a 17th century Rembrandt. Paying 1,500 times more than that was a British buyer who apparently knew what he was doing at the time. Experts have confirmed that Rembrandt Laughing, bought for a bargain price of Four and a half million at an English auction house in is a self portrait by the Dutch master, depicted with his head tilted back in easygoing laughter.
From a collector who specializes in Dutch and Flemish masters came about the information that this kind of art could have easily been sold for $30 to $40 million and he was rather surprised with how much the auction charged for it. What the art expert from Sotheby's declined to do was to put a new price on the particular painting. A rare opportunity in itself is the sale for a work by Rembrandt only comes on the market once every few years.
Rembrandt made the self portrait around 1628, when he was in his early 20s and still in his hometown, Leiden. His tools included a mirror and his face and he played with different expressions at a time when he was already earning his reputation as an artist. The presence it has is mind blowing. It was the light as well as the laughter which were in their most natural form.
Over 100 years was how long an English family previously owned the painting. A number of people thought that it was one of Rembrandt's students or his imitator. Poor photographs may have presented little of the painting's luminosity or depth and these could have been the cause for the low evaluation from the auction house. For the little work, a 23 page analysis was made to support the claim that all of the materials, contour, brush stroke, and monogram pointed to him and no one else.
Considering the rare style used by the artist for a year or so, the winner of the auction might have known that the painting was a genuine Rembrandt from the monogram RHL. It was Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden that the monogram stood for. For its assessment the auction house recorded the signature HL. Matching the directionality used by Rembrandt inn his other monograms are these initials and because they are also painted onto the background they become even more compelling proof.
What confused the experts was the body shape of the laughing Rembrandt. There was a woolly blanket for clothing, the metal armor and glossy shirt appear amorphous, it lay in lumpy folds, and there was limited definition of the anatomy below. What is evident in this piece is a contour which had a character of his own and he used this in his later works. Considering that the contour has a certain autonomy to it this must be due to the fact that Rembrandt was trying out this particular manner of painting the body.
Considering the thin copper plate on which the piece is painted, it is similar to the size and type as that of other Rembrandt paintings. Xrays reveal a second painting underneath its content and composition also consistent with other Rembrandt works. The whereabouts of the painting remained unknown before 1800 and a Flemish engraver attributed the original to the Dutch painter Frans Hals by mistake when he made a reproductive print not recognizing that the image bore the face of Rembrandt. Much mystery can be attributed to the location of the painting after much silence.
