Young Man with a Sword
ArtistCircle of
Rembrandt van Rijn
Dutch, 1606–1669
Datecirca 1633–1645
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 46 1/2 × 38 in. (118.1 × 96.5 cm)
frame: 58 1/8 × 51 7/8 × 5 1/4 in. (147.7 × 131.8 × 13.3 cm)
frame: 58 1/8 × 51 7/8 × 5 1/4 in. (147.7 × 131.8 × 13.3 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Object numberGL.60.17.68
On View
Not on view[1] Annotated version of the catalogue in the INHA library notes that the painting sold but does not indicate a buyer. The painting is listed as: “Un Tableau de l'École de Rembrandt, représentant un Guerrier, vu á mi-corps, tenant d'une main son épée, & l'autre appuyée sur le côté. Hauteur 42 pouces, largeur 35 pouces. T[oile].” The dimensions (one pouce equals approximately 2.707 cm) and the description match the NCMA painting very closely.
[2] Listed as the lender of the painting to an exhibition at the Royal Academy, 1912, no. 81.
[3] William Guy Hicks Beach was a stockbroker who went bankrupt in 1931. The 1932 Christie’s catalogue specifies that the painting (together with a 16th-century Florentine cassone) was sold by the order of Beach’s trustee, presumably as part of his bankruptcy proceedings.
[4] Annotated version of the sale catalogue in NCMA library notes this buyer. A second annotated copy of the sale catalogue, in the curatorial file, also lists Wells as the buyer but with a slightly different sale price.
[5] Published as a new discovery of the Katz Gallery in The Art News, November 25, 1933, p. 13. Nathan Katz (1893–1949), a prominent Jewish dealer in Holland, sold many paintings to Germans before obtaining an exit visa to Switzerland, reportedly with the help of Posse. He spent the war years in Basel, during which time (and afterwards) he was represented in America by Schaeffer Galleries.
[6] Elisabeth was the wife of the Dutch Chemist Dr. Jaques Coenraad Hartogs (1879–1932) and is often referred to in the literature as “Mrs. Dr. J. C. Hartogs” or “Mevr. de Wed. Dr. J. C. Hartogs” [Madam the Widow of Dr. J. C. Hartogs]. A letter from J. G. van Gelder to Dr. Valentiner, Director of the NCMA, January 1957 [NCMA files, transcribed from the Schaeffer records at the Getty Research Institute (GRI)] notes: “As you know the picture [Rembrandt, Young Man with a Sword] was bought by Katz of (sic, i.e. “for”) the Mrs. Hartogh Collection in Arnhem, long before the war.” According to the Getty Provenance Index, “Public Collections Database”: “Katz verbally 1945 says ‘Formerly in Jewish Coll., Arnhem and put into auction by Germans’.”
[7] The sale also includes as lot 19, Rembrandt, De Berisping van David door Nathan, which Schaeffer records (no stock number) indicate was sold to Katz September 15, 1937 and was included by him in his 1938 exhibition. Notes in the photo file for the NCMA painting in the Schaeffer Records (Box 6 Paintings Inventory L-Z, and Box 7, Sales Records, GRI) have the note Katz 4/55 and cite a telephone conversation September 3, 1941, in which Miss Wittler of M. Knoedler and Company said that the picture was recently sold in The Hague. In January 1945 Knoedler stated it had never been in their possession and they did not know where it was.
[8] According to the 1945–1946 Reports from the Allied Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU), Tietje was a German industrialist and collector who was associated with Miedle, Paech, and Heinrich Hoffmann. He was also a friend of Hermann Göring’s. He was believed to have been in Dutch custody at the end of the war. The Archives of the SNK are in the Nationaal Archief, The Hague: 2.08.42. Tietje is catalogued under SNK 1052, indicating that he was a collector.
[9] Label on reverse.
[10] In a letter to Benjamin Katz (b. 1891; brother of Nathan Katz), dated April 13, 1955, Hanns Schaeffer questioned him about the provenance of the painting: “It bears a label of the ‘Stichting Nederlandsche Kunstbezit.’ I conclude from this, and the photograph in the Frick Collection confirms it, that it was taken by the Germans during the war and possibly sold in an auction. What do you know about this? If so, it could make an interesting story, which would help the sale.” There is no response from Katz in the file. See note 8 on SNK records. Hartogs is catalogued under SNK 148, indicating she was a victim of confiscation, forced sale, or theft.
[11] Discussion between Schaeffer, Katz, and Mrs. Hartogs regarding the painting began in 1955 (Schaeffer Gallery Records, GRI, Box 87, correspondence 1955, F-M). In a letter November 25, 1955, to Schaeffer from Mevr, Dr. J. C. Hartogs, Sonsbeekweg 42, Arnhem, re. the sale of the Rembrandt; she says she has just been to see Katz, Dieren. September 1956 Valentiner requested the loan of the painting from Schaeffer. Schaeffer also sold a Rembrandt Landscape for Mrs. Hartogs in 1955 (sold and return file), which had a Katz inventory number: K134.Published ReferencesPossibly “Catalogue d’une très-belle collection de tableaux…provenant du cabinet de feu M. Marin,” (auction catalogue) (Paris: Lebrun, March 22, 1790), lot 412, as School of Rembrandt, un Guerrier.
Winter Exhibition (exhibition catalogue) (London: Royal Academy of Art, 1912), cat. no. 81, as Rembrandt, Potrait of a Cavalier.
Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions: 1813–1912, Vol. 3 (London:
Algernon Graves, 1914), cat. no. 81, as A Cavalier.
“Catalogue of Pictures by Old Masters, the properties of the right hon. Lord Aberdare removed from 83 Eaton Square, S.W.1, W. G. Hicks Beach, Esq. (Sold by Order of the Trustee)…” (auction catalogue) (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, June 3, 1932), lot 62, illus. (b/w), as Rembrandt.
The Art News 32, no. 8 (November 25, 1933), 13, illus.
“Publieke veiling van één en dertig kostbare oude schilderijen en vier Gobelins,” (auction catalogue) (The Hague: Van Marle & Bignell, July 1, 1941), lot 20, as Rembrandt, Portrait of a Man.
J. G. van Gelder, “Vroege Werken van Govert Flinck,” Mededelingen van het Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 1(1946), 27–28, illus.
W. R. Valentiner, Rembrandt and his Pupils (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), cat. no. 7, illus.
The Young Rembrandt and his Times (exhibition catalogue) (Indianapolis: John Herron Art Museum, 1958), cat. no. 8.
E. P. Richardson, “Notes on Special Exhibitions: The Young Rembrandt and His Times in Indianapolis,” Art Quarterly 21, no. 3 (Autumn 1958), 288.
The Samuel H. Kress Collection (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1960), 138, illus. (color) 139 (as by Rembrandt).
M. Vaughn, “The Connoisseur in America,” The Connoisseur 147, no. 593 (May, 1961), 224, illus. 225.
Guy Emerson, “The Kress Collection: A Gift to the Nation,” National Geographic 120, no. 4 (December 1961), 828–829, illus. (color) 831.
Schaeffer Galleries, Twenty-fifth Anniversary: 1936–1961, introduction by Hanns S. Schaeffer (New York: Schaeffer Galleries), cat. no. 20, illus. (color).
The New York Times Magazine (December 3, 1961), illus.
J. Walker, “Most Interesting Masterpieces,” New York Times (December 3, 1961), 103.
Art Treasures of America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection (exhibition catalogue) (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1961), cat. no. 77.
E. J. Poynter, “A Letter to the Editor,” The London Times (February 26, 1962).
Joan W. McCoy, “A Self Portrait by Bol,” The Dayton Art Institute Bulletin 20, no. 6 (May-June 1962), unnumbered page.
Paul Wescher, “Die Kress-Schenkung für Raleigh,” Pantheon 21, no. 1 (Januar–Februar 1963), 13, illus.
“Acquisitions,” North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 4, nos. 2 & 3 (Winter-Spring 1964), listed 58 (as by Rembrandt), illus. (b-w) 45.
Joachim W. von Moltke, Govaert Flinck 1615–1660 (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1965), cat. no. 108, illus.
Charles W. Stanford, Masterpieces in the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 26 (as by Rembrandt), illus. (color) 55 and detail (color) front cover.
North Carolina Architect, 20th Anniversary North Carolina Museum of Art 1947-1967 (Raleigh, NC: The North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1967) 5. Artwork included without mention in writing.
E. Haverkamp-Begemann, “Rembrandt und seine Schule: zur Ausstelung in Kanada.” Kunstchronik 22 (1969), 286, Kat. 7.
H. Gerson, “Rembrandt: A Question of Attributions,” Artscanada 26 (June 1969), 3.
J. R. Judson, “Rembrandt in Canada,” Burlington Magazine 111, no. 800 (November 1969), 703.
A[braham] Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings, revised by H. Gerson (London: Phaidon Press, 1st ed. 1935, 3rd ed. 1969), cat. no. 258.
Giovanni Arpino, Rembrandt (Milan, 1969), illus. in section of works “attrib.” to Rembrandt.
Fifty Treasures of the Dayton Art Institute (Dayton: Dayton Art Institute, 1969), mentioned and illus. 143.
Baroque Art: Era of Elegance (exhibition catalogue) (Denver: The Denver Art Museum, 1971), 74–75, illus. 75.
Rembrandt’s Workshop and Assistants / Rembrandt after Three Hundred Years: A Symposium (exhibition catalogue) (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1973), 26.
A[lbert] Blankert, “Ferdinand Bol, 1616–1680, een leerling van Rembrandt” (unpublished dissertation, 1976), 207–208. (The NCMA Library has only the 1982 publication of which the pages do not correspond to the 1976 publication.)
Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1977), cat. no. K2184, illus. fig. 126.
Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 104.
Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Vol 5 (Landau/Pfalz: Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt GmbH, 1983), cat. no 2079, illus. (color) 3210, as Govaert Flinck.
Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 93.
Chiyo Ishiskawa, et al, A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994), cat. no. 25, discussed 168, 170–173, illus. (color) 169 and detail illus. 172, fig. 4.
Chuck Twardy, “Store-bought Art,” Raleigh: The News and Observer (February 6,1994), Arts and Entertainment, mentioned, 10G.
Dennis Weller, entry for Young Man with a Sword, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 105, illus. (color).
George S. Keyes, Susan Donahue Kuretsky, Axel Rüger, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Masters of Dutch Painting (Detroit: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 2004), briefly discussed 184, illus. (b-w) 184, fig. 2.
Dennis Weller, “Young Man with a Sword: An NCMA Mystery,” in Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (Sept/Oct 2006), discussed 9, illus. (color) 8, detail of signature (b-w) 9.
Dennis P. Weller, “Seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish Paintings in Raleigh,” Codart (Winter 2009), briefly discussed 12–13, illus. 12.
Dennis P. Weller, Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings [Systematic Catalogue of the Collection] (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2009), cat. no. 37, illus. (color) 171, also mentioned xii.
Dennis P. Weller, entry for Young Man with a Sword, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 224, illus. (color) 225.
George S. Keyes, Tom Rassieur, and Dennis P. Weller, Rembrandt in America (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Skira Rizzoli, 2011), cat. no. 24, briefly discussed 128–29, illus. (color) 186, 124, pl. 32, and detail (color) 126–27.
Dennis P. Weller, “Rembrandt in America, Rembrandt at the NCMA,” in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Winter 2012), briefly discussed 8.
Lyle Humphrey, "Saul Among the Prophets: W.R. Valentiner, Robert L. Humber, Carl W. Hamilton, and the Italian Collection at the NCMA," Lisandra Estevez, ed., Collecting Early Modern Art (1400-1800) in the U.S. South (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021), 39, 41.Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy of Art, "Winter Exhibition," 1912, cat. no. 81.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Rembrandt and His Pupils: A Loan Exhibition," November 16-December 30, 1956, cat. no. 7 (as by Rembrandt), illus. (b-w).
Indianapolis, IN, John Herron Art Museum, "The Young Rembrandt and His Times," February 14-March 23, 1958; San Diego, CA, Fine Arts Gallery, April 11-May 18, 1958, cat. no. 8.
New York, Schaeffer Galleries, "Schaeffer Galleries Twenty-Fifth Anniversary, 1936-1961," 1961, cat. no. 20, illus. (color).
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, "Art Treasures of the Samuel H. Kress Collection," December 10, 1961-February 4, 1962, cat. no 77.
Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts, "Rembrandt and His Pupils," January 9-February 23, 1969; Toronto Art Gallery of Ontario, March 14-April 27, 1969, cat. no 7, illus. (color).
Chicago, IL, Chicago Art Institute, "Rembrandt's Workshop and Assistants / Rembrandt after Three Hundred Years: A Symposium," October 22-24, 1969, cat. p. 26.
Denver, CO, The Denver Art Museum, "Baroque Art: Era of Elegance," October 3-November 15, 1971, 74-75, illus. 75.
Richmond, VA, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 'Masterpieces from the North Carolina Museum of Art," March 11-April 13, 1975.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Dutch Art in the Age of Rembrandt," October 25-February 15, 1987.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection," February 5-April 24,1994; Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, May 22-August 14, 1994; Seattle, Seattle Art Museum, September 15-November 20, 1994; San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, December 17, 1994-March 4, 1995, cat. no. 25, illus. (color).
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Rembrandt in America," October 30, 2011-January 22, 2012; Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, February 19-May 28, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, June 24-September 16, 2012, cat. no. 24, illus. (color).
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