For the first time, all of Rembrandt’s portraits of his son Titus will be reunited and shown alongside the artist’s finest self-portraits in a landmark collaboration with the Rijksmuseum.

The Wallace Collection’s late portrait of Titus (ca.1657) will be displayed alongside the others, tracing his progression from boyhood to adulthood and the story of their intertwined lives.

Titus was the only one of the four children Rembrandt (1606-1669) had with his beloved first wife, Saskia, to survive infancy. Saskia herself never saw her son grow up: she died only eight months after his birth, aged just 29. In the years that followed, Titus witnessed some of the most difficult chapters of his father’s life and career. From an early age, he became increasingly involved in Rembrandt’s professional and financial affairs, assisting him through bankruptcy and later helping to organize his business matters.

For Rembrandt, the sudden death of Titus in 1668 was a devastating blow. The young man, so affectionately rendered in numerous portraits, had become his chief support in adversity. Titus was only 26.

The exhibition will bring together more than twenty works Rembrandt made of himself and his son Titus, including Self-Portrait with Two Circles (1665–1669), on loan from English Heritage – one of Rembrandt’s greatest and most celebrated works. It will also include a selection of Rembrandt’s finest paintings and works on paper, on loan from the National Gallery in London, as well as the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

The exhibition will travel to the Wallace Collection following its display at the Rijksmuseum.