Gallery shows off newly discovered Rembrandt, painted when Dutch master was a teenager

The painting was labelled as the work of an unknown artist from Europe’s “Continental School,” dated somewhere in the 19th century. It had a presale estimate of US$500-$800 when it went to auction in New Jersey last year.

French art dealer Bertrand Gautier thought the small oil-on-panel painting of three figures was older. And he thought he knew exactly who had painted it: Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn.

Unfortunately for Gautier and his partner Bertrand Talabardon, another dealer had the same hunch. In a few minutes of phone bidding, the price shot up, and in the end the Paris gallery owners paid just over US$1 million, including the buyer’s premium.

On Thursday, the painting, restored and now considered a genuine Rembrandt dating from 1624-1625, hung in pride of place at the entrance to the gallery’s stand at the prestigious TEFAF art fair in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht.

“This is a great discovery. It really is absolutely fascinating. This is the very beginning of Rembrandt, more or less the first picture he ever painted,” said Professor Christopher Brown, an expert in Dutch art at Oxford University.

It was painted when Rembrandt was just 18 or 19, at the start of his career, when he had finished his education in Amsterdam and moved back to his home town of Leiden.

“The drawing is slightly crude, the colours are very vivid,” Brown said. “It’s the beginning, the absolute beginning.”