CHAPTER VII
YEARS OF DECLINE (1643-1658)
There is still no lack of portraits in 1643. There are two pairs, "The Gentleman with the Hawk," and "The Lady with the Fan," at Grosvenor House, which, however, Dr Bode and M. Michel decline to admit among Rembrandt's works, and "The Dutch Admiral" and "His Wife," now in America. It is doubtful whether the "Old Woman weighing Money," at Dresden [No. 1564], ought to be included among the portraits; but there can be no question about the "Young Man in a Cap and Breastplate," in the same gallery [No. 1565], the "Old Woman," in the Hermitage [No. 807], called "Rembrandt's Mother," or the "Man," in the collection of Mr Armour. The other "Old Man," belonging to Mr Schloss of Paris, is probably only a study; and the "Portrait of a Man," incorrectly called Six, in the collection of Morris K. Jessup of New York, is but conjecturally a work of this year. There are three portraits of himself: one at Weimar, one belonging to Prince Henri of the Pays Bas, one, signed but undated, at Carlsruhe [No. 238]; and there is a portrait, called Saskia, at Berlin [No. 812]. The only signed subject of the year is the "Bathsheba at her Toilet," in the Steengracht collection at the Hague; but "The Holy Family," at Downton, was painted about that time.
The next year has very small results to show, and might, taken by itself, support the belief in the sudden unpopularity of Rembrandt were there not five other years for which we can now find only five pictures, and several with fewer. All the five of 1644 are signed. Three are portraits: Captain Holford's "Man with a Sword," Earl Cowper's "Young Man," and the fancifully named "Constable of Bourbon," in the collection of Herr Thieme at Leipzig. There is one subject-picture, "The Woman taken in Adultery," painted for Jan Six, and now in the National Gallery [No. 45]. Another of the same subject, in the possession of Consul Weber at Hamburg, bears, according to M. Michel, a forged signature, and is regarded by him as very doubtful.
[National Gallery, London
THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY
(1644)
[Dulwich Gallery