Rediscovered Rembrandt ‘Jan en Jaapgen’ sold for 13 million euros

‘Jan en Jaapgen’, two rediscovered portraits of a couple from Leiden, attributed to Rembrandt, are Thursday night at Christie’s in London auctioned for 11.2 million pounds, more than 13 million euros. The auction house had predicted a proceeds of between £5 and £8 million.

The Rijksmuseum helped the auction house with the attribution. On the oval portraits, almost 20 centimeters high, the wealthy Leiden city plumber Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym and his wife Jaapgen Carels are depicted. The couple had ties to the artist.

The paintings are not in the Rembrandt literature. For the past two hundred years, the panels have hung in the house of an unknown British family. The family had bought them at auction in 1824. The auction house described the pendant portraits in a press release as a “landmark rediscovery”, a historical rediscovery.

Not all Rembrandt connoisseurs were immediately convinced of the attribution to Rembrandt. Jeroen Giltaij, former curator of Museum Boijmans, had doubts in this newspaper because there are larger portraits of the couple in American museums that have been attributed to Rembrandt in the past. “What about: what are the originals, what are the copies?” Giltaij wondered.

However high the proceeds of the Rembrandt portraits are, the Old Master auction was the highlight a large painting by Michael Sweerts. Christie’s predicted revenue of 2 to 3 million pounds. The canvas was sold for 12.6 million pounds, 14.8 million euros.

Sweerts, a Flemish painter, depicted himself on this canvas in his studio in Rome, where he lived between 1646 and 1652. This painting also did not appear in the literature. The auction house discovered it in Château de Foriet, in the Walloon town of Saint-Géry.

The composition of the painting was known because several copies and versions of it have survived. Art historians are convinced that this is Sweerts’ long-lost original. The canvas, which was recently shown at Christie’s in Amsterdam, is still unlined. Although it is dirty, it is in good condition.

Rembrandt: Portraits of Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym (c.1565-1644) and his wife Jaapgen Carels (1565-1640), 1635. Auctioned for more than 13 million euros

Michael Sweerts: The artist’s studio, circa 1650. Auctioned for 14.8 million euros