Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair

Rembrandt painted this in 1633, soon after he moved from his home town of Leiden to Amsterdam and became the portraitist wealthy merchants wanted. The pose is oddly active for a formal portrait, with the man pushing up out of his chair as if a visitor has just come in, or as if he is rising toward his wife. She was real. Rembrandt painted her as a companion picture, a young woman with a fan, the two portraits made as a marriage pair to hang side by side. They were split up in 1793 and have been apart ever since. Her half now hangs in New York, still half-turned toward a husband who is no longer beside her.