Scholar Claims Canvas is Original Rembrandt Portrait

A long-dismissed portrait of an elderly man, once thought to be a mere workshop copy of a renowned Rembrandt painting, is now being championed by a leading scholar as an original work by the Dutch master himself. The canvas, titled Old Man with a Gold Chain and dating to the early 1630s, has been reunited with its counterpart at the Art Institute of Chicago for the first time in nearly four centuries, sparking renewed debate over its authorship.

The undisputed version, painted on panel and owned by the Art Institute since 1922, depicts a bearded man in a plumed hat and ornate gold chain against a dark background. It measures nearly life-size and is widely accepted as Rembrandt van Rijn's creation from around 1631, possibly portraying the artist's father. The second work, slightly smaller and executed on canvas, belongs to Cambridge-based entrepreneur Sir Francis Newman, whose great-grandfather purchased it in 1898 from a London gallery as an authentic Rembrandt. For over a century, however, it has been labeled a studio reproduction, a classification that began in 1912 after the panel version surfaced and was examined by German art historian Wilhelm von Bode. Bode described the...