Rembrants Rundāles pilī
Rembrandt in Rundāle Palace

Summary/Abstract: Rembrandt’s painting Anna and Simeon in the Temple is one of the most valuable artworks ever to have been in Latvia. Under the title of Hannah und Simeon im Tempel, it is now part of the collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. The painting was made between 1627 and 1628 but in 1632 it was in the collection of Netherlands Stadhoulder Frederick Hendrick in the Hague. In 1735 it was sold at the auction of Marinus de Jeude’s collection in the Hague. The artwork moved to Paris, firstly to the Count de Lassay collection but in 1771 it was sold at the auction of Count de la Guiche’s collection. The very same year it was sold at the auction of the collection of its new owner, Count Jean du Barry. The painting then moved from Jean Baptiste Lebrun’s antique art shop to Everard Georg van Tindinghorste’s collection. Peter, the Duke of Courland, bought it at the auction of the van Tindinghorste property in Amsterdam in 1777. So Rembrandt’s painting has been in Latvia between 1777 and 1795 when Duke Peter abdicated and moved furnishings from six palaces in Courland to his properties in Sagan, Nahod and Berlin. After Duke Peter’s death in 1800 the most of his collection of paintings remained in Sagan Palace, which had been inherited by his eldest daughter Wilhelmine. She died in 1839 and left the Sagan property to her sister Pauline. In 1800 she had married Friedrich Hermann, successor to the throne of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, but their son, Friedrich Wilhelm (Constantin), the last reigning Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, sold the Sagan property in 1843 to his mother’s sister, the Duchess Dorothée de Talleyrand. In 1846 the catalogue of the Sagan Palace picture gallery was compiled and included Rembrandt’s work. The Hohenzollerns kept a large part of the paintings and in 1847 these were moved to Löwensberg Palace, where a catalogue was compiled in 1858, again including the Rembrandt. Prince Friedrich Wilhelm abdicated in 1849 and took the name of Count von Rothenburg. The state of Hohenzollern-Hechingen was annexed to Prussia but the Rothenburg family settled in Netkow Palace in Silesia, which they had inherited from Pauline. Duke Peter’s collection of paintings was gradually sold off. The Biblical story shows that the title Anna and Simeon in the Temple only partly reveals what is going on because the presence of Jesus is not even mentioned. The painting is from the very first years of Rembrandt’ career and is endowed with lighting effects that testify to the influence of the Utrecht followers of Caravaggio. The work features the typical golden and greenish colouring with deep brown shadows and glazes. It is similar to other works of the same period – The Apostle Paul in Prison (1626) and Conversation of Two Scientists (1628), moreover, Simeon has been painted from the same model as in both the above-mentioned paintings.

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