Rembrandt's Son Titus

Artist:Style of Rembrandt (17th century or later)

The sentimental subject of Rembrandt's son Titus, who died one year before his father, was a favorite of Rembrandt forgers, who occasionally failed to coordinate the date on their canvas with the style of execution and the sitter's age. The present painter has been more careful, evidently referring to an original portrait of Titus such as the one of about 1657 in the Wallace Collection, London, and, for the costume, to a self-portrait or other Rembrandt painting of the period; the same pose and placement of the figure in the composition occur in Rembrandt's Self-Portrait of 1652 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The boy's bright eyes and sweetly smiling lips seem as superficial in expression as they are in form. The technique overall might be compared with that of the Man with a Beard (89.15.3).
(Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art)