An unsigned portrait, painted in the signature Dutch Golden Age style of Rembrandt, was recently rediscovered in a Maine attic. Thomaston Place Auction Galleries presented the work at auction with a pre-sale estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. While its attribution is unclear, the “after Rembrandt” portrait sold for a staggering $1.4 million.
“Remarkable” Portrait Shatters Pre-Auction Estimate
Dating back to the 17th century, Portrait of Girl was discovered during a standard auction house appraisal. Kaja Veilleux—founder, appraiser, and auctioneer at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries—made a routine visit to a private estate in Camden, Maine. He explained in a press release, “On house calls, we often go in blind….The home was filled with wonderful pieces, but it was in the attic, among stacks of art, that we found this remarkable portrait.”
The purported Rembrandt portrait hit the auction block on day two of Thomaston’s Summer Grandeur Sale. Bidding opened above estimate at $32,500 and escalated quickly as eleven competing bidders made dozens of successive offers, all in increments of $25,000. An anonymous private collector from the UK made the winning bid of $1.4 million. “I never imagined I’d help close a deal for over a million dollars,” said Zebulon Casperson, a staff member at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries who represented the winning bidder over the phone. The auction house reported that the painting is now one of the most expensive artworks ever sold in Maine.
The Painting’s Label May Point to Rembrandt
Live Auctioneers reported that Portrait of Girl was painted in the 1630s. During this period, Rembrandt was overseeing portrait commissions as the head of an art dealer’s studio. The use of dramatic light and striking contrast bears a clear resemblance to Rembrandt’s distinctive mode of portraiture. Even more importantly, the painting was found with a label from the Philadelphia Museum of Art on its backside. The label attributes the painting to Rembrandt, titles it Portrait of Girl, and notes that Mr. Cary W. Bok of Camden, Maine, loaned it to the museum in 1970. The Philadelphia Museum of Art could not clarify any details regarding the loan and maintained that the label does not guarantee authentication by itself. As such, the auction house formally attributed the painting as “after Rembrandt.”
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Rembrandt Portraits at Auction
Despite being stored in an attic, Portrait of Girl has remained remarkably well-preserved over the centuries. The oil on oak panel painting is mounted in a hand-carved gold Dutch frame and depicts a teenage girl dressed in a black robe with a frilly white collar and cap. Her face is brightly illuminated, and her figure is set against a flat, neutral background. The mere possibility that Portrait of Girl was personally painted by Rembrandt was enough to catalyze a bidding war that ended with a $1.4 million sale price.
Dutch Golden Age portraits by Rembrandt rarely appear at auction. Last year, Christie’s sold the last authenticated Rembrandt portraits owned by private collectors. Christie’s also set the record for the most expensive Rembrandt ever sold at auction in 2009, when Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo fetched $33.3 million.
