Rocznik Historii Sztuki (41.2016)

Rocxnik Historii Sztuki, tom XLI
PAN, 2016

KATARZYNA KRZYŻAGÓRSKA-PISAREK
LONDON

CORPUS RUBENIANUM EERS'US REMBRANDT RESEARCH PROJECT.
TWO APPROACHES TO A CztTHEOGUE 7M7EOAAÉ

INTRODUCTION
In the past, anything that bore even a slight resemblance to an artisfs work was sold under his
name. Hundreds of paintings were attributed to Rembrandt by the eighteenth-century tradition. Hundreds
more were rediscovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, and certified authentic by the leading
scholars of the day. The rediscovered and reattributed works were then included in the rapidly expanding
c<2/<7/og77c^ 7Y7MO№7Uy, distorting Rembrandt canon. An account of the state of affairs in America at that
time can be tbund in G. Seligman, А&тхАш/А o/ <зтТ 7V30-VP60.' c/g/7/y реогл o/^0/0x5/0770/ co//oc/777g,
who was an art dealer himself: 'As the passion for names grew along with the demand for paintings,
attributions to the great masters were made, so to speak, in generic terms. A great many canvases were
called Rembrandts, for instance, simply because they were close to the master's technique; and anyway
Rembrandt was an awfully good name. The man who had no informed opinion of his own, yet could not
bring himself sometimes wisely, to rely entirely upon the word of a dealer, had recourse to the services
of the third party - the professional expert, the art historian, or the consulting connoisseur'k
The situation with Rubens's oeuvre was not dissimilar, although on a smaller scale as he was less
popular with wealthy American collectors at the turn of the century. The German art historian Wilhelm
Valentiner, in his book ^77/7^77^ ^mn/wg^ /77 Hwer/ca (1946) gave us an overview of the American market
for the artist at that time. According to him, Rubens was the last of the great Dutch and Flemish masters
to be appreciated by the American private collectors and museums. Rembrandt and Hals were the heroes
of the first generation. Rubens was less sought after because of the puritanical prejudice against the
sensuous nature of his art. Many American millionaires such as Frick, Altman, Metlon or Widener did
not like Rubens's style and did not buy his paintings. Only Morgan acquired half a dozen works which
were, in Valentiner's own words, 'not of equal quality'. The 1920's and 1930's saw a new vogue for
Rubens in Europe, which resulted in the American market showing more interest for the artist towards
the middle of the 1930's.
There was perhaps another reason for the greater stability of Rubens's core oeuvre - he was less
imitated and copied than Rembrandt. His complex compositions with many figures in ful) movement, the
virtuoso technique, and the nervous brushwork were arguably more difficult to imitate than Rembrandt's
c/77<27YMCM7Y7 technique. A broadly sketched face of an old bearded man (there are scores of those!) painted
in the style of Rembrandt, highlighted in some parts and hidden in deep shadows in others, was an effect

' G. Setigman, А/еиАапТу o/or7 o/р/'о/ААонд/ co//e<r7ń;g, New York 1961, p. 125.