Focus on this artwork and analyze the History and provenance.
King Stanisław August Poniatowski bought it and The Scholar at the Lectern in 1777 from Elisabeth Henriette Marie Golovkin (daughter of Count Friedrich Paul von Kameke) via the art dealer Jakub Triebl. He initially displayed them at the Łazienki Palace in Warsaw and after his death they both passed to Józef Poniatowski who in 1813 left them to his sister Maria Teresa Poniatowska. In 1815 they were bought by Kazimierz Rzewuski, who gave them to his daughter Ludwika, wife of Antoni Lanckoroński. They were later owned by the Lanckoroński family. Count Karol Lanckoroński, great art lover, who resided in Vienna, arranged in 1902 for The Girl in the Picture Frame to be exhibited with other Renaissance and Baroque paintings from his collection, in the palace purposely built to house the collection (Jacquingasse 16-18, near Vienna's Botanical Garden). The Gestapo seized it during World War II, but in 1947, it was returned to its rightful owners and placed in a Swiss bank vault. It was next exhibited in 1994 in an exhibition of the family's artworks at the Royal Castle, Warsaw, after which Karolina Lanckorońska donated the painting to the Royal Castle.
It was studied under the Rembrandt Research Project, led by Ernst van de Wetering, who analysed Girl and Scholar three times and in February 2006 confirmed they were painted by Rembrandt. They were then exhibited at the Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam and the Gemäldegalerie Berlin as a part of "Rembrandt - The Quest of a Genius", an exhibition marking the 400th anniversary of the painter's birth.
Amsterdam Rembrandt Research Project Łazienki Palace Karolina Lanckorońska Rembrandthuis Stanisław August Poniatowski Gestapo Warsaw Royal Castle Royal Castle, Warsaw Rembrandt Ernst van de Wetering Maria Teresa Poniatowska Józef Poniatowski Gemäldegalerie Berlin The Scholar at the Lectern World War II