Portrait de Nicolaes Bruyningh

Rembrandt signed and dated this in 1652, a poor year to be a portrait painter in Amsterdam. War with England had broken out that summer, the fleet was blockaded, seaborne trade stopped and the picture market stopped with it. Commissions thinned out badly for him, and within four years he was selling his house and his collection to satisfy creditors. Nicolaes Bruyningh was about 22, from an Amsterdam merchant family, and what Rembrandt did with him is unusual for a paid likeness. The hair goes in with a few dragged, scratchy strokes, the collar is barely described, and the face carries all of the finish. Landgrave Wilhelm VIII of Hesse-Kassel bought the painting in the middle of the 18th century for his gallery, which is why it hangs in the old masters rooms at Schloss Wilhelmshoehe in Kassel today.