Please note: This display is scheduled to run until late spring. As the closing date is subject to change, visitors are advised to consult the museum’s website for the most current information.

Opening 17 December 2025 and running through late spring, the Art Institute of Chicago presents Rembrandt van Rijn’s Old Man with a Gold Chain alongside a contemporary workshop copy in Gallery 213. The display offers a rare opportunity to examine seventeenth-century workshop practices and the relationship between the Dutch master and his pupils.

The Art Institute’s painting, a centerpiece of its Dutch collection since it was bequeathed by Evaline Cone Kimball in 1921, was identified as an “unqualified original” in 1912. At that same time, a second version of the subject—painted on canvas rather than wood panel—was reattributed by the connoisseur Dr. Wilhelm Bode as a “clever reproduction.” Recent technical research confirms that the canvas version, now in a private collection, was likely produced in Rembrandt’s workshop around 1632.

The Art Institute recently brought these two paintings together for the first time in four centuries, thanks to the generosity of the copy’s owner and to art historian Gary Schwartz. The reunion allows curators and conservators to study the two works side by side for the first time in four centuries. By comparing the master’s hand with that of his student, the project seeks to answer enduring questions regarding seventeenth-century attribution and the creative process within Rembrandt’s circle.

For more information, please visit the museum website for a detailed essay on these two paintings written by curator Jacquelyn Coutré.