Doyle, from New York, sells on 27 January 2016 a "Follower of Rembrandt" portrait of a woman, estimated at $3,000 to $5,000.
It is a very nice portrait, much better than the usual Rembrandt-style paintings one sees, and for a very reasonable price for this quality. It's not a hidden Rembrandt probably, the painting is a bit too flat when seen in detail, not painted lively enough; but it is a very competent, striking image nevertheless.
First question it raises; is it Saskia, Rembrandts wife and muse? The above portrait of Saskia by Carel Fabritius could well be the same woman, but it's hard to be sure.
Searching among the pupils of Rembrandt to find possible matches, I noticed different possible matches, like Aert de Gelder, Leveck or Samuel van Hoogstraten. Perhaps the most likely candidate is Isaac de Jouderville. He uses less of the
flou artistique so beloved by many pupils of Rembrandt, as can be seen in the portrait pictured above.
Other pupils also made similar works, but their style is less close to the one for sale. For instance the above portrait is by Willem Drost, who seems to have a much looser touch of the pencil. Other works by Drost come closer to the one for sale though, these artists didn't stick to one fixed style sadly (for us, now, I mean).
I don't think, based solely on the picture on the website, that it can be attributed to Jouderville or any other painter (perhaps by a real specialist in these portraits, certainly not by me). But it is a very good example of this style and should be worth a lot more.
UPDATE: sold for $11,250, more than three times the estimate: nice to see that the bidders for once agree with me ;-)
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