A Rembrandt drawing of a lion may strategy a file sum for a piece on paper when it’s anticipated to come back up for public sale subsequent 12 months. Thomas Kaplan, an American collector of Dutch Seventeenth-century artwork, plans to make use of the proceeds to assist fund the conservation of “large cats”.
“Wildlife conservation is the one ardour I’ve which surpasses Rembrandt—and I need to appeal to extra individuals to that trigger”, Kaplan says.
Younger Lion Resting (1638-42) has simply gone on show in an exhibition of Kaplan’s assortment at Amsterdam’s H’ART Museum. Previously often known as the Hermitage Amsterdam, the museum severed hyperlinks with the St Petersburg establishment after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and it’s now unbiased.
Kaplan’s present, From Rembrandt to Vermeer: Masterpieces from The Leiden Assortment, runs till 24 August. His assortment is called after town of Rembrandt’s delivery.
When The Artwork Newspaper requested Kaplan whether or not the sale of his Rembrandt drawing may fetch over $10m, he instantly responded, “multiples of tens”. Sellers clearly have a motive to speak up values, however on this case the cash would all go to charity, which may encourage patrons. The most costly work on paper ever bought at public sale was Raphael’s Head of a Younger Apostle (round 1519), which went for £29.7m (then $48m) at Sotheby’s in 2012.
Kaplan, the billionaire chairman of the valuable metals asset firm the Electrum Group, arrange the New York-based Panthera conservation organisation. It helps protect the seven species of huge cats: cheetahs, jaguars, leopards, lions, pumas, snow leopards and tigers. This week Kaplan returned from a one-month go to to India, to view lions and snow leopards.
Rembrandt would have been in his early or mid-30s when he drew the lion. The truth that the animal wears a leash round its neck emphasises that it was drawn from life, presumably at a menagerie or a good in Amsterdam. Two different drawings of lions on the British Museum in all probability depict the identical animal.
Lions had been sometimes taken from North Africa to the Netherlands on ships of the Dutch East Indies Firm. Rembrandt could presumably have drawn the animal to be used in prints of St Jerome, who is commonly portrayed accompanied by his loyal lion. Kaplan notably admires the animal’s eyes and says of his drawing that Rembrandt “offers a larger inside life to a cat than most artists can to a human”.
He purchased the lion drawing in 2005 from the New York seller Otto Naumann. Little is understood of its earlier provenance, though it appears to have been with French collectors for the reason that 18th century.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes (1634) Courtesy: Leiden Assortment
Younger Lion Resting was the primary Rembrandt which Kaplan purchased, however he and his spouse Daphne Recanati quickly went on to amass no fewer than 17 Rembrandt work (two of them he acknowledges as having workshop participation); that works out at practically one Rembrandt a 12 months.
Kaplan says there are solely 40 Rembrandt work in personal collections, which implies that he now has practically half of them.
All his Rembrandts are within the Amsterdam present, together with the Self-portrait with shaded Eyes (1634). This got here from the gathering of the Las Vegas on line casino boss Steve Wynn in 2008.
Johannes Vermeer, Younger Girl Seated at a Virginal (1670–75) Courtesy: Leiden Assortment
The Amsterdam exhibition additionally contains practically 60 work by different Dutch Seventeenth-century artists, such Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou, Carel Fabritius, Frans Hals, Jan Lievens, Frans van Mieris and Jan Steen. Lots of them are of the so-called Leiden Faculty, depicting scenes in beautiful element.
However a very powerful portray within the exhibition is Johannes Vermeer’s Younger Girl seated at a Virginal (1670-75). Kaplan purchased it in 2008, once more from Wynn. It’s the solely one of many 37 surviving Vermeers which stays in a non-public assortment. The Amsterdam present will journey to the Norton Museum of Artwork in West Palm Seashore, Florida (25 October-29 March 2026).
