The flag, the plume in the hat, and the tooled leather baldric (sword-belt) indicate that the figure is an ensign in one of Amsterdam's civic guard companies. He is almost certainly Floris Soop, a wealthy bachelor whose estate included 140 paintings. Rembrandt conveys a strong sense of character and reveals extraordinary skill in the vigorously modeled face, the thick hair, and costume details. The impressions of volume in the figure and space in the background have been diminished by abrasion and darkening with age.
#2641. Investigations: The Standard Bearer (Floris Soop, 1604-1657), Part 1
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2641. Investigations: The Standard Bearer (Floris Soop, 1604-1657), Part 1
2642. Investigations: The Standard Bearer (Floris Soop, 1604-1657), Part 2
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Fig. 1. Painting in frame: overall
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Fig. 2. Painting in frame: corner
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Fig. 3. Painting in frame: angled corner
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Fig. 4. Profile drawing of frame. W 8 1/2 in. 21.6 cm (T. Newbery)
Artwork Details
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Title:The Standard Bearer (Floris Soop, 1604–1657)
Artist:Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam)
Date:1654
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:55 1/4 × 45 1/4 in. (140.3 × 114.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
Accession Number:49.7.35
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Rembrandt f 1654
?the sitter, Floris Soop, Amsterdam (1654–d. 1657; inv., 1657); ?his uncle, Petrus Scriverius [Peter Schrijver], Oudewater (1657–d. 1660); ?his son, Willem Schrijver (from 1660); Sir Joshua Reynolds, London (by 1769–d. 1792; his estate sale, Christie's, London, March 17, 1795, no. 56, for £37.16, bought in by Offley [Ottley] for £37.16; his estate sale, Phillips, London May 8, 1798, no. 38, for 9 gns. to Westall); Richard Westall, London (from 1798); George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick, Warwick Castle, England (by 1801–d. 1816); his son, Henry Richard Greville, 3rd Earl of Warwick, Warwick Castle (1816–d. 1853); his son, George Guy Greville, 4th Earl of Warwick, Warwick Castle (1853–at least 1857); [Sedelmeyer, Paris, by 1896]; [Charles J. Wertheimer, London]; [Agnew, London]; [Duveen, London; sold to Gould]; George J. Gould, New York (by 1901–d. 1923; his estate, 1923–26; sold to Duveen); [Duveen, New York, 1926; sold for $250,000 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1926–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 36; 1943, no. 35)
Birmingham Society of Arts. "Pictures Chiefly by the Ancient Masters of the Italian, Spanish, and Flemish Schools," 1828, no. 33 (as "The Burgomaster, generally known as the Standard-Bearer," lent by the Earl of Warwick).
Manchester. Art Treasures Palace. "Art Treasures of the United Kingdom," May 5–October 17, 1857, no. 680 (lent by the Earl of Warwick).
London. British Institution. June 1860, no. 27 (lent by the Earl of Warwick).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1871, no. 77 (as "Portrait of a Burgomaster," lent by the Earl of Warwick).
St. Louis. World's Fair. "Universal Exposition," April 30–December 1, 1904, no. 81 (lent by Mr. George J. Gould, New York).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Hudson-Fulton Celebration," September–November 1909, no. 98 (lent by George J. Gould, New York).
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Loan Exhibition of Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century," January 9–25, 1925, no. 16 (lent by Sir Joseph Duveen, New York).
Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum. "Historische Tentoonstelling," July 3–September 15, 1925, no. 544 (as "De Vaandeldrager van Amsterdam," lent by Sir Joseph Duveen, New York).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Exhibition of Dutch Art 1450–1900," January 4–March 9, 1929, no. 103 (lent by Jules S. Bache).
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Paintings by Rembrandt," May 2–31, 1930, no. 52 (lent by Mr. Jules Bache, New York).
Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum. "Rembrandt Tentoonstelling," June 11–September 4, 1932, no. 27 (lent by Jules S. Bache, New York).
New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Rembrandt," April 17–29, 1933, no. 8 (lent by Jules Bache).
Indianapolis. John Herron Art Museum. "Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century," February 27–April 11, 1937, no. 57 (lent by Jules S. Bache, New York).
New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800," May–October 1939, no. 301 (lent by the Jules S. Bache collection, New York).
New York. Duveen Galleries. "Paintings by the Great Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century," October 8–November 7, 1942, no. 46 (lent by the Bache collection, New York).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Paintings by the Great Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century," November 18–December 16, 1942, no. 29 (lent by the Bache collection, New York).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Bache Collection," June 16–September 30, 1943, no. 35.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. "Five Centuries of Dutch Art," March 9–April 9, 1944, no. 43 (lent by Jules S. Bache, New York).
Los Angeles County Museum. "Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Frans Hals, Rembrandt," November 18–December 31, 1947, no. XXIII.
City of Manchester Art Gallery. "European Old Masters," October 30–December 31, 1957, no. 102.
Raleigh. North Carolina Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Art," April 6–May 17, 1959, no. 73.
Tokyo National Museum. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 10–October 1, 1972, no. 78.
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 8–November 26, 1972, no. 78.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 23.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 23.
New Haven. Yale Center for British Art. "Rembrandt in Eighteenth-Century England," October 19–December 30, 1983, no. 1.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 10, 1995–January 7, 1996, no. 13.
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne," June 23–November 12, 2006, no. 13.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.
Tokyo. National Museum of Western Art. "Rembrandt: The Quest for Chiaroscuro," March 12–June 12, 2011, no. 30.
Nagoya City Art Museum. "Rembrandt: The Quest for Chiaroscuro," June 25–September 4, 2011, no. 30.
Joseph Farrington. Journey of a Tour in Scotland. 1801 [Royal Library, Windsor; typescript, British Museum, London, p. 8], mentions seeing it in the collection of Lord Warwick, calling it a "Burgo Master with Staff".
John Smith. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters. Vol. 7, London, 1836, p. 103, no. 279, as "The Halberdier," engraved by W. Pether.
W. Burger [Théophile Thoré]. Trésors d'art exposés à Manchester en 1857. Paris, 1857, p. 248 [reprinted as "Trésors d'art en Angleterre," Brussels, 1860, with same pagination].
C. Vosmaer. Rembrandt, sa vie et ses ouevres. 2nd ed. The Hague, 1877, p. 554 n. 1.
Wilhelm [von] Bode. Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei. Braunschweig, 1883, pp. 538–39, 592–93, no. 262, as painted about 1662–64.
Eugène Dutuit. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt. Paris, 1885, pp. 49, 65, 70, no. 436.
Alfred von Wurzbach. Rembrandt-galerie. Stuttgart, 1886, text vol., p. 68, no. 256.
J. M. Gray. "Warwick Castle and its Art Treasures." Magazine of Art 14 (1891), p. 3, ill. p. 4.
Emile Michel. Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, and His Time. English ed. New York, 1894, vol. 2, pp. 181–82, 237, ill. p. 179, as painted about 1660–62 on p. 237 and about 1662–64 on p. 179.
Illustrated Catalogue of the Third Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters . . . Paris, 1896, p. 42, no. 30, ill. opp. p. 42, notes the date of 1654.
"The Chronicle of Art—August." Magazine of Art 19 (August 1896), p. 424, ill. p. 423, reports its purchase by Wertheimer.
A. "The Rembrandt Exhibition." Art-Journal, n.s., (December 1898), p. 356.
Malcolm Bell. Rembrandt van Rijn and His Work. London, 1899, p. 186.
Wilhelm [von] Bode with the assistance of C. Hofstede de Groot. The Complete Work of Rembrandt. Vol. 5, Paris, 1901, pp. 26, 150, no. 370, pl. 370, states that the sitter is "still unidentified".
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. Stuttgart, 1904, p. 261, ill. p. 186.
History of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Ed. Mark Bennitt et al. St. Louis, 1905, pp. 485, 489, ill.
New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904: Report of the New York State Commission. Ed. Delancey M. Ellis. Albany, 1907, p. 282.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration: Catalogue of an Exhibition Held in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1909, vol. 1, p. 99, no. 98, ill. opp. p. 99.
Alfred von Wurzbach. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. Vol. 2, Vienna, 1910, p. 405.
C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Ed. Edward G. Hawke. Vol. 6, London, 1916, pp. 163–64, no. 269.
D. S. Meldrum. Rembrandt's Paintings. London, 1923, p. 200, pl. CCCLXIX.
Werner Weisbach. Rembrandt. Berlin, 1926, p. 541, fig. 173.
Edouard Brandus. "La collection des tableaux anciens de M. Jules S. Bache, à New-York." La Renaissance 11 (May 1928), p. 194, ill. p. 189.
Arsène Alexandre. "L'art hollandais à la Royal Academy." La Renaissance 12 (March 1929), p. 122, ill. p. 127.
Walter Heil. "The Jules Bache Collection." Art News 27 (April 27, 1929), p. 4, ill. p. 10.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill.
Esther Singleton. Old World Masters in New World Collections. New York, 1929, pp. 204–7, ill.
A. C. R. Carter. "An Auction Causerie: Reynolds's Rembrandts." Creative Art 4 (March 1929), p. 228, ill. p. 215.
William Gibson. "The Dutch Exhibition at Burlington House." Apollo 9 (January 1929), ill. opp. p. 8.
Royal Cortissoz. "The Jules S. Bache Collection." American Magazine of Art 21 (May 1930), p. 259.
W. R. Valentiner. "Important Rembrandts in American Collections." Art News 28 (April 26, 1930), p. 3, ill. following p. 4.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Rembrandt Paintings in America. New York, 1931, unpaginated, no. 117, pl. 117.
A[braham]. Bredius. Rembrandt Gemälde. Vienna, 1935, p. 12, no. 275, pl. 275.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 36, ill.
A. P. Laurie. "The Discovery of Another Version of the 'Standard-Bearer of Amsterdam,' by Rembrandt." Illustrated London News 201 (July 25, 1942), p. 105, ill. p. 104, identifies the sitter as Jacob Haaring, who was not only a standard bearer for a militia company, but was also warden of the debtors court at the time of Rembrandt's bankruptcy; publishes a copy from an American private collection [Pelz collection, New York].
Harry B. Wehle. "The Bache Collection on Loan." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1 (June 1943), p. 288.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 35, ill.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 82.
Kurt Bauch. Rembrandt Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, p. 21, pl. 408, suggests that the signed date is 1656.
Geoffrey Agnew. Agnew's, 1817–1967. London, 1967, unpaginated, ill.
Horst Gerson. Rembrandt Paintings. Ed. Gary Schwartz. Amsterdam, 1968, pp. 390, 501, no. 317, ill. p. 391.
Paolo Lecaldano inL'opera pittorica completa di Rembrandt. Milan, 1969, p. 116, no. 319, ill.
Horst Gerson, ed. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings.. By A[braham]. Bredius. 3rd ed. London, 1969, p. 570, no. 275, ill. p. 210.
E. Haverkamp-Begemann inRembrandt After Three Hundred Years. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. [Chicago], 1969, p. 23.
Calvin Tomkins. Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, pp. 172, 316 [rev., enl. ed., 1989].
I[sabella]. H[enriette]. v[an]. E[eghen]. "De Vaandeldrager van Rembrandt." Amstelodamum 58 (October 1971), pp. 173–81, ill., identifies the sitter as Floris Soop; states that according to an inventory of 1658, there were three portraits of Soop in his house when he died, and believes a picture described as a life-size portrait of Soop as an ensign to be the MMA painting.
I. van Eeghen. Portretten van Rembrandt. [ca. 1973], pp. 9–18.
M. M. Tóth-Ubbens. "De barbier van Amsterdam." Antiek 4 (November 1975), p. 388.
J. Bolten and H. Bolten-Rempt. The Hidden Rembrandt. Milan, 1977, p. 196, no. 424, ill.
S. A. C. Dudok van Heel. "Mr. Joannes Wtenbogaert (1608–1680) een Man uit Remonstrants Milieu en Rembrandt van Rijn." Jaarboek van het Genootschap Amstelodamum 70 (1978), p. 168 n. 4.
Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen. The Rembrandt Documents. New York, 1979, pp. 406–7, ill.
Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 334, 340–41, fig. 603 (color).
Maryan W. Ainsworth et al. Art and Autoradiography: Insights into the Genesis of Paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Vermeer. New York, 1982, pp. 57, 87, 102, pls. 35–38 (overall, x-ray radiograph, and autoradiographs).
E. Haverkamp-Begemann. Rembrandt: The Nightwatch. Princeton, 1982, p. 104, fig. 77, notes that the masonry resembles the archway in "The Night Watch" (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), suggesting that in the MMA work it is intended as a reference to a city gate.
David Alexander inRembrandt in Eighteeenth-Century England. Exh. cat., Yale Center for British Art, Yale University. [New Haven], 1983, p. 138, under no. 127.
Christopher White inRembrandt in Eighteeenth-Century England. Exh. cat., Yale Center for British Art, Yale University. [New Haven], 1983, pp. 9, 17, 44, 108, no. 1, ill. on cover (color).
Gary Schwartz. Rembrandt, His Life, His Paintings. New York, 1985, pp. 258, 261, 266–68, 292, fig. 306 (color).
Colin Simpson. Artful Partners: Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. New York, 1986, pp. 205, 297 [British ed., "The Partnership: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen," London, 1987].
Christian Tümpel. Rembrandt: Mythos und Methode. Königstein, 1986, p. 413, no. 213, ill. p. 280 (color).
Francis Broun. "Sir Joshua Reynolds' Collection of Paintings." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1987, vol. 1, pp. 137, 149, 154; vol. 2, pp. 52–53, no. 8; vol. 3, pl. 15.
Irene van Thiel-Stroman inFrans Hals. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. London, 1989, p. 410, doc. 166.
Walter Liedtke. "Dutch Paintings in America: The Collectors and Their Ideals." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1990, pp. 40, 52.
Pieter van Thiel inRembrandt: The Master & His Workshop. Ed. Sally Salvesen. Exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Vol. 1, "Paintings."New Haven, 1991, p. 200, fig. 26a (color), under no. 26.
Sebastian Dudok van Heel inRembrandt: The Master & His Workshop. Ed. Sally Salvesen. Exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Vol. 1, "Paintings."New Haven, 1991, p. 59.
Leonard J. Slatkes. Rembrandt: Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1992, p. 257, no. 163, ill. (color).
S. A. C. Dudok van Heel. "Rembrandt en de vaandrigs van de Amsterdamse schutterij." Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis no. 2 (1993), pp. 20–21, fig. 8.
Walter Liedtke inRembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, "Paintings, Drawings, and Prints: Art-Historical Perspectives."New York, [1995], pp. 31, 34, 72–74, 115, no. 13, ill. (color).
Hubert von Sonnenburg. Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, "Paintings: Problems and Issues."New York, 1995, pp. 24, 31, 47, 59–60, figs. 48 (color detail), 49 (x-radiograph detail), in caption, gives the attribution as "Rembrandt(?)", noting that "the overall flatness evident in the painting itself and in the X radiograph is not consistent with authentic works".
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 315, ill., as "The Standard Bearer (Floris Soop) (1604–1657)".
B[en]. P. J. Broos inThe Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Vol. 26, New York, 1996, p. 165.
Paul Broekhoff and Michiel Franken. "Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship." Simiolus 25, no. 1 (1997), p. 78.
Simon Schama. Rembrandt's Eyes. New York, 1999, p. 602, ill. (color).
León Krempel. Studien zu den datierten Gemälden des Nicolaes Maes (1634–1693). Petersberg, Germany, 2000, p. 125 n. 64.
Christopher Wright. Rembrandt. Paris, 2000, p. 222, fig. 214 (color).
Mariët Westermann. Rembrandt. London, 2000, pp. 238–39, fig. 156 (color).
Harry Berger Jr. Fictions of the Pose: Rembrandt Against the Italian Renaissance. Stanford, 2000, pp. 315–17, 572–73 nn. 123, 126, 128, 131–32, colorpl. 16.
Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, p. 477.
Walter Liedtke. "Gerard de Lairesse and Jacob de Wit 'in situ'." The Learned Eye: Regarding Art, Theory, and the Artist's Reputation: Essays for Ernst van de Wetering. Ed. Marieke van den Doel et al. Amsterdam, 2005, pp. 192, 202 n. 4.
Elizabeth A. Pergam. "From Manchester to Manhattan: The Transatlantic Art Trade After 1857." Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 87, no. 2 (2005), pp. 86, 88.
Katharine Baetjer inThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2006, pp. 82–88, no. 13, ill. (color; overall and detail).
Walter Liedtke inThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2006, pp. 82–88, no. 13, ill. (color, overall and details).
Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), pp. 27–28, 41–42, 70, fig. 27 (Hudson-Fulton gallery photograph).
Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. ix, 132, 280–81 n. 40; vol. 2, pp. 655–61, 676, no. 152, colorpl. 152.
Peter C. Sutton. Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, "Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo". New York, [2011], p. 3 [dealer's brochure].
Akira Kofuku inRembrandt: The Quest for Chiaroscuro. Exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art. Tokyo, 2011, pp. 7, 11.
Akira Kofuku and Bob van den Boogert inRembrandt: The Quest for Chiaroscuro. Exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art. Tokyo, 2011, pp. 134–35, 346, no. 30, ill. (color).
Martin Royalton-Kisch inRembrandt: The Quest for Chiaroscuro. Exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art. Tokyo, 2011, pp. 26, 298.
Old Masters. Christie's, New York. April 19, 2018, p. 45, fig. 5 (color), under no. 11.
Philip Cottrell. "George Scharf and the 1857 Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition." Burlington Magazine 162 (April 2020), p. 292, fig. 5 (color), publishes Scharf's sketch of paintings in the collection at Warwick Castle (fig. 4), including this work.
Engraved in mezzotint by William Pether in 1769, while in the collection of Joshua Reynolds (published in John Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, London, 1883, no. 42).
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam)
1620–69
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