Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van RIJN
1606–1669, Netherlands
In 2004 a large-scale art forgery case was exposed during the Salvador Dali centenary exhibition at the Wanha Satama fair centre in Helsinki. The art dealer concerned had forged and sold hundred of Dali graphics as well as graphics of some other internationally known artists. Made by roughly glueing a picture cut from an art book to cardboard. A genuine Rembrandt would probably not be treated like that. The picture was for sale for 64.000 €.
In 2004 a large-scale art forgery case was exposed during the Salvador Dali centenary exhibition at the Wanha Satama fair centre in Helsinki. The art dealer concerned had forged and sold hundred of Dali graphics as well as graphics of some other internationally known artists. Made by roughly glueing a picture cut from an art book to cardboard. A genuine Rembrandt would probably not be treated like that. The picture was for sale for 47.000 €.
Oil on canvas, 45x34 cm, signed Rembrandt. The painting is not painted by Rembrandt. It is processed to look old. Crazing is not genuine. Microscopic examination shows that the canvas is probably from the 1930s. It is prepared on the back to look older. The painting is a plagiarism. It is varnished and treated with a kind of glue, resulting in cracking. It is bigger cracks than it would have been if it had been the case of normal crazing. A brown coating is then imposed, this has flowed into the cracks, then the coating has been wiped away. The painting is typical of what a private person, interested in Rembrandt, can do to get a painting to look old. The signature is painted with both black and white to get a little body. Rembrandt never did so. The painting is not constructed from below, as it normally should have been. Looking at a 1600-century painting, one can see the transparency that is not in this painting. Rembrandt did religious paintings only after the Old Testament. If he took any design from the New Testament, he did so as etching. The subject of this painting, "Veronika napkin", is from the New Testament.