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Portrait of Jan Six
Oil on canvas (1654) by Rembrandt van Rijn, depicting Amsterdam patrician and art collector Jan Six donning his glove. Considered by many critics the greatest portrait in Dutch painting. Uniquely, still held by the Six family collection, Amsterdam.
Scholarly Significance
Rembrandt's finest individual male portrait; still in the Six family collection after 370 years.
Notes
- ·Jan Six (1618–1700) was a wealthy Amsterdam merchant, poet, and art collector who was Rembrandt's friend and patron.
- ·Rembrandt depicts Six in a moment of casual movement — pulling on a glove — rather than the static official pose typical of Dutch portraiture.
- ·The portrait has remained in the Six family collection continuously since 1654, making it one of the most notable examples of unbroken family provenance in Western art.
- ·The rapidity and freedom of the brushwork, especially in the coat, anticipates Impressionism.