Dutch master; second third of the 17th century.

Dutch master; second third of the seventeenth century.
"Portrait of a gentleman".
Oil on vellum.
Former attribution to Rembrandt Harmensz van Ryn (Leiden, 1606 - Amsterdam, 1669).
It presents restorations and faults.
Provenance: Spanish private collection and former collection of the Barons of Beyens, France.
Measurements: 10 x 8 cm; 30 x 27 cm (frame).
This piece, formerly attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn, has a lineage of provenance that goes back several centuries and that links it to prominent figures of the European aristocracy. The portrait was part of the prestigious collection of the Barons de Beyens, a Belgian noble family with close ties to the French imperial court of the 19th century. Among its owners was the Baroness de Beyens, lady-in-waiting to the Empress Eugénie de Montijo, which underlines the social and symbolic relevance of the piece within the context of the European nobility. Previously, the miniature belonged to the collection of the Alcalá-Galiano family, a Spanish aristocratic family of renowned trajectory.
According to family tradition, the work would have remained in private hands since the 17th century and would have been attributed since then to Rembrandt, which contributed to consolidate its prestige as a masterpiece of the Dutch Baroque. This attribution was maintained for generations, in fact the work was exhibited in 1994 in Capilla del Monte, Córdoba, Argentina, as part of the exhibition Treasures of the Barons of Beyens, where it was again presented as a work by Rembrandt. E
Aesthetically the work establishes itself as an excellent example of the best Dutch Baroque portrait painter, a sober composition centered exclusively on the model, whose gaze, fixed on the viewer, introduces us into the pictorial space, without the artifices of contemporary court portraiture. The portrait acquires vitality and personality through the study of the natural and the author's capacity for psychological depth, transcending the mere representation of the physical appearance of the character. Features that are found only in the face, where the author focuses all the attention of the viewer, focusing on this point the light.

Rembrandt Harmensz van Ryn (Leiden, 1606 - Amsterdam, 1669) was not only a master painter, but also an exceptional engraver. He worked with both burin and drypoint, always dispensing with prior drawing, attacking the plate directly and exploiting to the maximum the expressive possibilities of the etching technique. He made many tests, removing and inserting elements and retouching, hence the great sense of immediacy of his engravings. He made up to ten different states, and it even took him years to finish some of his works. His favorite subject was the self-portrait: he took himself as a model to study his affections, and at the same time he left a record of his personality and the passage of time.