A Young Man with a Chain (c. 1629 or 1632): Art, History and Details

A Young Man with a Chain (c. 1629 or 1632) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669); Studio.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This painting is an example of a tronie, a Dutch word meaning “head” or “facial expression.” Tronies were not intended to be identifiable portraits, but artistic investigations of facial appearance and fanciful costume. Particularly in the years around 1630, Rembrandt used this popular format to explore different lighting effects and facial expressions. Here, the strong contrast of light and shade shapes the contours of the young man’s face; unusual accessories such as the striped scarf and glittering pendant on a jeweled chain add an exotic touch. Although this painting bears Rembrandt’s monogram, the authorship is not certain. Some scholars have attributed it to Isaac de Joudreville (1613–1648), a pupil and associate of Rembrandt who painted comparable tronies in a similarly smooth and elegant style.

Object facts

• Title: A Young Man with a Chain
• Date: c. 1629 or 1632
• Creator attribution: Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669); Studio
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 83.8 x 69.9 x 12.7 cm (33 x 27 1/2 x 5 in.); Unframed: 57.8 x 43.8 cm (22 3/4 x 17 1/4 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1942.644

A detail from the museum

Once identified as Rembrandt himself, the sitter is now considered an anonymous study of human character.

Collection credit

Bequest of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters; London, United Kingdom: Smith and Son, 1829.
• Dutuit, Eugène. Tableaux et Dessins de Rembrandt: Catalogue Historique et Descriptif. Paris: Lévy, 1885.
• Bode, Wilhelm von, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, and Auguste Marguillier. L' Oeuvre Complet de Rembrandt: Reproduction par l'héliogravure de tous les Tableaux du Maître, Accompagnée de leur Histoire, de leur Description et d'une étude Biographique et Critique. 8. Paris: Sedelmeyer, 1906.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.