Art historians considered “The Elevation of the Cross,” an oil sketch that Dutch art historian Abraham Bredius acquired 101 years ago for his collection, to be a clumsy imitation. He bought it with the conviction that it was a genuine Rembrandt. But experts disagreed with him. Wrongly so, it turns out. The drawing is real. This is what the latest research has revealed.
Triggered by a book research by the Dutch art historian Jeroen Giltaij, the Bredius Museum in The Hague had “The Raising of the Cross” examined again. The oil sketch hung there in the corner for a century. Rembrandt experts from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum supported the assessment. From the materials, experts concluded that the drawing must be an original, the Bredius Museum said. Further analyzes are forthcoming.
The art historian Giltaij justifies the fact that this misjudgment could have happened at all with the characteristic style of the oil drawing. The brush strokes are not very detailed. “Rembrandt is usually very precise and refined”, will Giltaij im Guardians quoted. The work is a preparatory sketch for a painting. Hence the atypically rough style.
The discovery of the Rembrandt sketch was a pleasant surprise, said Boris de Munnick from the Bredius Museum the Reuters news agency. The new work of art will add considerable value to the museum’s collection – it is now the second Rembrandt that the exhibition house has owned.