Rembrandt found in New Jersey auction; Gets showing in Maastricht

A believed to be lost painting by Rembrandt van Rijn surfaced at an auction in New Jersey in the United States last year. The painting, which can be attributed tot he famous Dutch artist without a doubt, will be displayed at the annual art and antique auction TEFAF in Maastricht, broadcaster NOS reports. The painting is titled The fainted patient (smell). It is 21.6 x 17.8 cm big and was painted when Rembrandt was 18 or 19 years old. It shows someone helping a surgeon to get a patient conscious by letting him smell a cloth soaked in ammonia. It is one of a series of five paintings that depict the senses. "There is no doubt about it", Ernst van Wtering, Rembrandt expert, said to the broadcaster. "The painting can one hundred percent be attributed to Rembrandt." The painting was in the possession of a individual in New Jersey for a long time. It was listed in the auction as "European school, nineteenth century". Only when the bids ran up significantly did they realize the painting was something special. The painting was now bought by the owner of the Leiden Collection, a New York private collection consisting of 200 paintings by 17th century masters. Now that The fainted patient (smell) was rediscovered, four of the five senses paintings are accounted for. The Leiden Collection also owns The three singers (hearing) and Surgery (touch). And Leiden museum De Lakenhal is the owner of The spectacle peddler (sight). The fifth and last painting representing "taste" is still lost.