Buste d'un jeune homme barbu

Sometime in the 18th century somebody decided this small panel needed improving. A broad-brimmed hat went on over the head, a white shirt and a black coat over the shoulders, turning a quick study of a young man into the tidy Dutch portrait a collector of that age wanted on his wall. By the early 1800s it hung at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire with the Dukes of Ancaster, still under Rembrandt's name. The additions came off in the 20th century and the attribution came off with them. It was sold in London in 2004 as Rembrandt School, for about 34,000 pounds. Cleaning afterwards brought up a signature, Rembrandt f, brushed into paint that was still wet, and the oak of the panel dates to around 1656.