The Rembrandt House Museum is asking colleagues for help in tracking down a painting that it is hoping to include in an upcoming exhibition:

Jan Lievens, Susanna and the Elders, ca. 1631, oil on panel, 41 × 51 cm.

This painting last appeared at auction in Vienna (Dorotheum, 1 March 1994, lot 124). Unfortunately the record of the buyer does not survive.

This painting sheds new light on the competitive friendship between Rembrandt and Jan Lievens. It would make a crucial contribution to this crucial episode in Rembrandt’s life and work, in our upcoming exhibition Rembrandt’s Social Network: family, friends, relations (1 February – 22 May 2019). Our lead exhibition for 2019, the 350 anniversary of Rembrandt’s death, it will present a wide range of social contacts that Rembrandt maintained over his forty-five years as an artist. The accent will fall on those bonds of family and friendship that contributed to his making of art.

If you can help us in tracing this work, and perhaps even with contacting the current owner, we would be most grateful. Please contact: David de Witt (d.dewitt@rembrandthuis.nl) or Epco Runia (e.runia@rembrandthuis.nl).