Painting considered workshop copy is in fact by Rembrandt, expert says

Exclusive: UK owner’s version of Old Man with a Gold Chain reunited in Chicago with undisputed work by Dutch master

A portrait in a UK collection that has long been dismissed as a workshop copy of an almost identical painting by Rembrandt was in fact also painted by the 17th-century Dutch master, according to a leading scholar.

Each of the paintings, titled Old Man with a Gold Chain and dated to the early 1630s, is a near-lifesize depiction of an older man wearing a gold chain and a plumed hat.

For the first time in almost four centuries, the two portraits have been reunited by the Art Institute of Chicago, which owns the undisputed version, painted on panel.

The other portrait, which is slightly smaller and painted on canvas, is on loan from Sir Francis Newman, a Cambridge-based entrepreneur, and is labelled as a “copy” by an artist in Rembrandt’s workshop.