Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III

Rembrandt · PD

Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III


Details

Artist
Rembrandt
Year
1632
Medium
oil paint
Type
painting
Dimensions
29.9 × 24.9 cm

The story

This is one of the smallest things Rembrandt ever painted, under 30 centimetres tall, made in 1632 as one of a pair. It shows Jacob de Gheyn, an engraver and a friend, and its companion portrait of de Gheyn's friend Maurits Huygens still exists too, in Hamburg. The two men agreed that whoever died first would leave his portrait to the other. What the little panel is actually famous for now has nothing to do with any of that. Since 1966 it has been stolen from the Dulwich gallery in south London four separate times, always recovered, earning it the Guinness record for the most-stolen painting and the nickname the takeaway Rembrandt, because it is small enough to carry out under one arm.

Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III — Rembrandt — MuseScope