Portrait of Philips Lucasz.

In 1635 Philips Lucasz was about to sail back to the other side of the world. He was a senior officer of the Dutch East India Company, and his fleet had come home from the Indies at the end of 1633 and was due to leave again that May. Just before it did, he sat for Rembrandt, then 29 and only a few years into his Amsterdam practice. The portrait was made to hang beside one of his wife, Petronella Buys, so the couple could face each other while he was away for years at a stretch. It is signed by Rembrandt, though the slightly stiff handling of the collar and hand has long led scholars to suspect a studio assistant lent a hand.