Painting reclassified as Rembrant

Experts have reclassified a painting of an old man long thought to have been made by one of Rembrandt's students as having come from the Dutch master himself.

The rethink came after X-ray analysis revealed outlines of a self-portrait of the artist as a young man underneath.

Ernst van de Wetering of the Rembrandt Research Project cited the new X-ray scans of the painting, Bearded Old Man, in addition to stylistic analysis and circumstantial evidence in support of the conclusion.

Mr van de Wetering dates the 6in by 8in painting to 1630, when Rembrandt would have been 24. His reputation as a portraitist was rapidly growing and he was preparing to leave Leiden for Amsterdam, which at that time was enjoying its golden age as a major naval power.

The painting shows a man with unkempt white hair, lost in thought with a hint of sadness.

The scans revealed what is thought to be an uncompleted self-portrait by Rembrandt underneath, though the X-rays reveal only bare outlines.

Mr van de Wetering said the style and quality of the painting itself provide the strongest arguments for its authenticity, but the existence of the underlying portrait was important too.

In addition, a 1633 version of Old Man exists and is known to be a student's copy of Bearded Old Man.

The Bearded Old Man belongs to an unidentified private collector. It will go on display in May to July next year at the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, where the findings were announced today.

Mr van de Wetering collaborated with restorer Martin Bijl and technology professors Joris Dik of the Delft University of Technology and Koen Janssens of the University of Antwerp.

Researchers used at least five different kinds of X-ray scan to analyse the chemical make-up of pigments in the painting and probe its hidden layers of paint. The scans were done at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and ESRF in Grenoble, France.

Rembrandt produced hundreds of paintings, etchings and drawings, but new finds are extremely rare. However, four works formerly attributed to his students - a talented group in their own right - have been reclassified as by Rembrandt since 2008, often with the help of new technology.