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Additional Views

Feb 26, 2009

An Elderly Man in Prayer

1660s or later

follower of Rembrandt van Rijn

(Dutch, 1606–1669)

Netherlands, 17th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 119.4 x 106.7 x 15.9 cm (47 x 42 x 6 1/4 in.); Unframed: 87.3 x 72 cm (34 3/8 x 28 3/8 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1967.16

Location

not on view

Description

Toward the end of his life, Rembrandt explored religious themes from an intimate perspective, producing a number of works for a possible Apostle series. The personal religiosity of An Elderly Man in Prayer, formerly attributed to Rembrandt, bears resemblance to such late works. Seated with eyes nearly closed and hands clasped in prayer over a large book, the figure appears still and introspective. While the dramatic lighting and dark color palette are reminiscent of Rembrandt's late works, this painting, formerly attributed to the artist, has since been assigned to a follower or a later eighteenth-century imitator of Rembrandt's style for reasons associated with the broad, flat brushwork of the garment, the poor handling of shadow on the hands, and the uniform treatment of the hair.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed and dated at middle-right: "Rembrand[t]/ f.166[1]" (Last letter of name and last digit of date are no longer visible).

Provenance

including 1889-1897

Counts von Harrach, Schloss Rohrau and Vienna, Austira (inventories of 1889 and 1897, no. 218)

Walter Bareiss (1920-2007), Zurich, Switzerland

by 1956

Charlotte Barreiss, Zurich, Switzerland

June 24, 1964

(Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 24, 1964, lot 5)

-1967

(Pinakos, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1967-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lee, Sherman E. “Rembrandt: Old Man Praying.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 10 (December 1967): 295–301. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 295-301 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 124 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 159 archive.org

Morse, John D. Old Master Paintings in North America: Over 3000 Masterpieces by 50 Great Artists. New York: Abbeville Press, 1979. Mentioned: P. 232

Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. “The Weeping Heraclitus by Hendrick Terbrugghen in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Burlington Magazine 121, no. 914 (May 1979): 279–87. Mentioned: P. 287 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 260; Mentioned: p. 261-262

Borowitz, Helen O. “The Rembrandt and Monet of Marcel Proust.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 2 (February 1983): 73–95. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 74-75, fig. 2 www.jstor.org

Guillaud, Jacqueline, and Maurice Guillaud. Rembrandt, the human form and spirit / [translators, Suzanne Boorsch and others]. Paris: Guillaud Editions, 1986. Reproduced: P. 533, no. 621

Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Washington, D.C.: Netherlands-American Amity Trust, 1986. Mentioned: P. 66

Wheelock, Arthur K., Peter C. Sutton, Volker Manuth, and Anne T. Woollett. Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits. Washington [D.C.]: National Gallery of Art in association with the University of Chicago Press, 2005. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 22, fig. 9

Giltaij, Jeroen, and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Het grote Rembrandt boek: alle 684 schilderijen. Zwolle : WBOOKS, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 477, no. 659

Exhibition history

Harrach Gallery, Vienna from before 1904 to 1939.

Rembrandt und Seine Zeit, Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen, 1949: no. 141.

Thirty-one paintings of the 15th-18th centuries from a Private Collection, Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen, 1952: no. 22, (repr.)

Rembrandt Tentoonstellung, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, May-August 1956, Rotterdam, Boymans Museum, August-October 1956, cat. no. 89, repr. p. 182 (as a "Praying Apostle")

Munich, Alte Pinakothek (on loan, 1963)

The Year in Review for 1967, no. 63, The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Rembrandt After Three Hundred Years, Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 25- Dec. 7, 1969, no 19.

Dutch Art and Life in the Seveneteenth Century, The Cleveland Museum of Art, July 10- September 2, 1973. (no catalogue)

Gainesville, FL: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, 10/97 - 4/19/98 Re-presenting the Baroque.(no catalogue)

North Carolina Museum of Art (10/30/2011 - 1/22/2012), The Cleveland Museum of Art (2/19/2012 - 5/28/2012), and Minneapolis Institute of Arts (6/24/2012 - 9/16/2012): "Rembrandt Paintings in America: Collecting and Connoisseurship"

Year in Review: 1967. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 29-December 31, 1967).

Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973).

Re-presenting the Baroque. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art (organizer) (October 1, 1997-April 1, 1998).

Study purposes for Rembrandt exhibition in May 2002. National Gallery of Art (organizer).

Study purposes/The Apostle Paul. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (March 17, 2000-March 17, 2001).

Rembrandt Paintings in America. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (organizer) (October 30, 2011-January 22, 2012); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 19-May 28, 2012); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (June 24-September 16, 2012).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=An Elderly Man in Prayer|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1967.16|author=Rembrandt van Rijn|year=1660s or later|access-date=01 June 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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An Elderly Man in Prayer

An Elderly Man in Prayer

follower of Rembrandt van Rijn

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