The Standard Bearer by Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2010

The Standard Bearer (Floris Soop, 1604–1657)

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam)

Date: 1654

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 55 1/4 x 45 1/4in. (140.3 x 114.9cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Jules Bache Collection, 1949

Accession Number: 49.7.35

Gallery Label:

The flag, the plume in the hat, and the tooled leather baldric (or sword-belt) indicate that the figure is an ensign in one of Amsterdam's civic guard companies. He has been identified convincingly as Floris Soop (1604–1657), a wealthy bachelor who owned 140 paintings at the time of his death. Scholars have disputed the extent to which the portrait was painted by Rembrandt himself, a question complicated by its abraded and darkened condition. The picture has been well known since the eighteenth century, when it was owned by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/1100...