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Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-c. 1780)

Rembrandt (1606-1669) c.1772-80

Watercolour on ivory | 6.1 x 5.1 cm (sight) (sight) | RCIN 421156

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  • Rembrandt van Rijn was a Dutch painter, etcher, draughtsman and one of the greatest artists of the seventeenth century. He studied first with Jacob van Swanenburgh in Leiden and then with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. By 1625, he was working as an independent artist in Leiden. In 1631-2, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam and remained there for the rest of his life. He soon established himself as the leading portrait painter in the city, producing both portraits of individuals and group portraits such as the Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp (1632, The Hague, Mauritshuis). Over his lifetime, he also painted about 80 self-portraits. Among his commissions for religious works were five paintings depicting scenes of Christ's Passion (Munich, Alte Pinakothek) for Prince Frederick Henry of Orange.

    In 1634, Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the cousin of a picture-dealer. Of the four children Saskia bore him, only his son Titus (1641–68), who became one of his favourite models, lived longer than two months. In 1639, he bought an imposing house, now the Rembrandt museum, and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, but Saskia herself died in 1642. In the same year, Rembrandt finished his most famous picture, The Night Watch (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum).  Samuel van Hoogstraten, the painter and art theorist, wrote of it: 'It is so painter-like in thought, so dashing in movement, and so powerful' that the pictures beside which it hung were made to seem 'like playing cards'.

    In the 1640s, Rembrandt concentrated more on religious paintings and landscapes, but by 1656 he had fallen into financial difficulties and was declared bankrupt. His collections were sold and he had to move to lodgings in a poorer part of the city. Hendrickje Stoffels (a servant some 20 years younger than Rembrandt, who entered the household in about 1645 and bore Rembrandt two children) and Titus formed an art firm with Rembrandt as their employee, which protected the artist from his creditors. Arnold Houbraken, the painter and biographer, wrote that 'in the last years of his life, he worked so fast that his pictures, when examined from close by, looked as if they had been daubed with a bricklayer's trowel'. Rembrandt was also a renowned teacher: his many pupils included Gerrit Dou and Carel Fabritius.There are five paintings by Rembrandt in the Royal Collection.

    This miniature is one of the collection of copies of 224 self-portraits by artists in the Uffizi Palace, Florence, that Lord Cowper, the art collector and patron, commissioned Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-1780) to paint. He presented the miniatures to King George III in two batches, in 1773 and 1786. Macpherson followed the original self-portraits quite closely, but copied only the head and shoulders. He inscribed the artists' names on the backs of the miniatures – several differ from those in the modern Uffizi catalogue, notably: Bazzi, Bellini, Campi, Annibale Carracci, Gabbiani, Masaccio, Metsys, Moroni, Pencz, Licinio, Schiavone and Spada. None of the miniatures is signed, apart from Macpherson's own self-portrait, which is inscribed: Giuseppe Macpherson / Autore della serie (Giuseppe Macpherson / Author of the series).Macpherson was born in Florence, the son of Donald Macpherson, a footman in the service of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon. He was a pupil of Pompeo Batoni and painted miniatures and enamel portraits in Italy, France and Germany, finally settling in Florence. A James Macpherson is recorded in London and Paris in 1754 but it is not certain that this is the same person. He was described in 1776 as having a special talent for painting on enamel and as being 'almost the only painter in Europe who possesses this art to perfection'. He had a distinguished client list which included some of the crowned heads and dignitaries of Europe. In 1778, he was invited to add his own self-portrait to the famous painters in the grand duke's collection as it 'would do honour to Florence to enrich the collection with a work which shows that we still have some men of true merit' according to Giuseppe Pelli, director of the Uffizi at the time.

    Provenance

    Presented to George III by Lord Cowper

  • Medium and techniques

    Watercolour on ivory

    Measurements

    6.1 x 5.1 cm (sight) (sight)


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