| The Polish Rider | |
|---|---|
| Polish:Jeździec Polski (Lisowczyk) | |
.jpg) | |
| Artist | Rembrandt[1] |
| Year | 1650s |
| Dimensions | 117 cm × 135 cm (45.9 in × 53.1 in) |
| Location | The Frick Collection,New York |
The Polish Rider is a seventeenth-century painting byRembrandt, usually dated to the 1650s, of a young man traveling on horseback through a murky landscape, now inThe Frick Collection inNew York.[2] When the painting was sold byZdzisław Tarnowski [pl] toHenry Frick in 1910, there was consensus that the work was by theDutch painterRembrandt. This attribution has since been contested, though those who contest it remain in the minority.
There has also been debate over whether the painting was intended as a portrait of a particular person, living or historical, and if so of whom, or if not, what it was intended to represent.[3] Both the quality of the painting and its slight air of mystery are commonly recognized,[1] though parts of the background are very sketchily painted or unfinished.[citation needed]
The first western scholar to discuss the painting was Wilhelm von Bode who in hisHistory of Dutch Painting (1883) stated that it was a Rembrandt dating from his "late" period, that is, 1654. Somewhat later,Abraham Bredius examined the picture quite closely and had no doubts that its author was Rembrandt. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Alfred von Wurzbach suggested that Rembrandt's studentAert de Gelder might have been the author, but his opinion was generally disregarded. Throughout most of the twentieth century, there was general agreement that the painting was indeed by Rembrandt and evenJulius S. Held, who at one time questioned its Polish connection, never doubted Rembrandt's authorship. However, in 1984, Josua Bruyn, then a member of theRembrandt Research Project (RRP) tentatively suggested that certain characteristics of the work ofWillem Drost, another student of Rembrandt, could be observed in the painting.[2] Though the mysterious and somewhat solemn expression on the Rider's brilliantly painted face point to Rembrandt,The Polish Rider is unlike Rembrandt's other work in certain other ways. In particular, Rembrandt rarely worked on equestrian paintings, the only other known equestrian portrait in Rembrandt's work being thePortrait of Frederick Rihel, 1663 (National Gallery, London).[1]
But Bruyn's remained a minority opinion, the suggestion of Drost's authorship is now generally rejected, and the Frick itself never changed its own attribution, the label still reading "Rembrandt" and not "attributed to" or "school of". More recent opinion has shifted even more decisively in favor of the Frick, withSimon Schama in his 1999 bookRembrandt's Eyes, and scholarErnst van de Wetering, chair of the Rembrandt Project (Melbourne Symposium, 1997), both arguing for attribution to the master. Those few scholars who still question Rembrandt's authorship feel that the execution is uneven, and favour different attributions for different parts of the work.[4] A 1998 study published by the RRP concluded that another artist's hand, besides that of Rembrandt, was involved in the work. Rembrandt may have started the painting in the 1650s, but perhaps he left it unfinished and it may have been completed by someone else.[3]
The idealised, inscrutable character has encouraged various theories about its subject, if the picture is a portrait. Candidates have includedMarcjan Aleksander Ogiński from thePolish-LithuanianOgiński family, as asserted by the 18th-century owners of the painting; andJonasz Szlichtyng, Polish Protestant theologian. Others believe that the outfit of the rider, the weapons and even the breed of horse are all Polish. Dutch equestrian portraits were infrequent in the 17th century and traditionally showed a fashionably dressed rider on a well-bred, spirited horse, as in Rembrandt'sFrederick Rihel.
Historical characters have also been suggested, ranging fromOld Testament David to theProdigal Son and theMongolian warriorTamerlane, or the Dutch medieval hero,Gijsbrecht IV of Amstel. A “soldier of Christ”, an idealistic representation of a mounted soldier defending Eastern Europe against theTurks, or simply a foreign soldier have been suggested. The young rider appears to many people to face nameless danger in a bare mountainous landscape that contains a mysterious building, dark water and in the distance evidence of a fire.[5]
In a 1793 letter toKing Stanislaus Augustus of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the painting's ownerMichał Kazimierz Ogiński identified the rider as "aCossack on horseback",[6] and the king recognized the subject as a member of the irregular military unit known asLisowczyk. In 1883, Wilhelm Bode, an expert in Dutch painting, described the rider as a Polish magnate in the national costume.[3] In 1944, the American Rembrandt scholarJulius S. Held[7] contested the claim that the subject was Polish and suggested the rider's costume could beHungarian. Two Polish scholars suggested in 1912 that the model for the portrait was Rembrandt's sonTitus.[3]
In 1993 the artist Russell Connor painted a portrait in the style of Rembrandt showing the Dutch master, palette in hand, standing in front of the incompletePolish Rider. With a twist of dry irony, Connor attributed the painting to Rembrandt's pupilCarel Fabritius and submitted it toThe New Yorker with a joke note saying that the painting had been found in a basement inPinsk, Belarus. The magazine published a reproduction of Connor's painting with a slightly reworked version of his comments, obviously not intending to pass it off as genuine but as a comment on the zeal of the Rembrandt Commission, who at the time were questioning the authenticity of the Polish Rider and many other paintings formerly known as genuine Rembrandt canvases.[8][9]
Thomas M. Prymak, "Rembrandt's 'Polish Rider' in its East European Context,"The Polish Review, vol. 56, no. 3 (2011), 159–86.
