A Lady and Gentleman in Black
A Lady and Gentleman in Black is an oil-on-canvas painting, reputedly a work of the Dutch artist Rembrandt in 1633. Measuring 131.6 by 109 centimetres (51.8 in × 42.9 in), it depicts a well-dressed husband and wife.[1] The painting hung in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, Massachusetts prior to being one of thirteen works stolen from the museum in a 1990 theft.
| A Lady and Gentleman in Black | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Rembrandt |
| Year | 1633 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 131.6 cm × 109 cm (51.8 in × 43 in) |
| Location | Unknown since its theft in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, US |
Provenance
editThe authorship of the painting has been debated. In 1987, the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) disattributed the work, considering it a product of the artist's workshop.[2] However, the RRP re-attributed the painting to Rembrandt again in its corpus published in 2015, in which it is called Portrait of a couple in an interior. X-ray examination of the painting reveals that Rembrandt originally painted a child leaning on the seated lady's leg. Art historians speculate that the child died young and that the couple asked for the image to be painted out so as not to bring back painful memories.[3]
Bernard Berenson purchased the painting on behalf of collector Isabella Stewart Gardner.[4]
It hung in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, prior to being stolen on March 18, 1990 when the canvas was crudely cut with a blade out of its stretcher and likely rolled up despite it needing to be kept flat to avoid cracking the paint. Following the theft, the painting has not resurfaced.[5] A reward is offered for the return of the stolen items.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Rembrandt, A Lady and Gentleman in Black, 1633". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
- ^ Boser, Ulrich (2009). The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft. New York: HarperCollins. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-06-145184-3.
- ^ A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings VI: Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited – A Complete Survey. Ernst van de Wetering. Springer. 2014. ISBN 978-9-4017-9173-1.
- ^ Samuels, Ernest (1 January 1979). Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Connoisseur. Harvard University Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-674-06777-6.
- ^ a b "Theft". Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Retrieved 20 August 2014.