Bust of Margaretha de Geer

This smaller likeness of Margaretha de Geer carries Rembrandt's signature and the date 1661, and for a long time it was accepted as his. The sitter was the wife of the rich arms dealer Jacob Trip, and the large canvas he painted of her in the same years hangs in this room too. In the late 1980s technical analysis found a ground layer unlike the one he normally used, on a canvas mounted in an unusual way. The signature turned out not to be authentic. Then look at the face. The brush swirls around her mouth and nose. Near the temple and above one eye the ground is left bare, while the big picture is worked with great care. The National Gallery now says this portrait is probably by Rembrandt, and no more than probably.