In the collection of the Louvre in Paris is a painting depicting 'Portrait of an Elderly Man' by Rembrandt, once belonging to the collection of the last King of Poland, Stanislaw August

Unidentified model
The painting shows a frontally depicted elderly man with grey short, slightly curly hair, a short beard and moustache. His face is pale, his mouth slightly open, but his gaze lively, facing slightly downwards to the right. The man is dressed in a brown coat with a collar, an under garment from under which the white collar of his shirt is visible. A pendant chain is faintly visible on the model's chest. The background is indeterminate. The painting is in a dark brown colour scheme, the light accent being the left side of the face and the shirt collar.

"Portrait of an Elderly Man" was once thought to be a portrait of the painter Rembrandt van Rijn's brother Adriaen (1597-1652) as an original late work by Rembrandt himself. Today, however, the painting held in the Louvre is believed to be the work of an imitator of the great master, dated between 1650 and 1660, and the identity of the model is undetermined. Similar in terms of the model's facial physiognomy is a painting entitled 'Study of an Elderly Man', also once believed to be a work by Rembrandt, held in the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague (inv. no. 560). Both paintings can therefore be considered to belong to the portrait category known as 'thrones', i.e. representations of a characteristic human type. "Tronie" were not intended as portraits, but as studies of an expression, type, physiognomy or interesting figure, such as an old man, young or old woman. They were characteristic of Dutch and Flemish art of the Baroque period, and Rembrandt used this portrait type quite often.

The painting in the Louvre shows numerous cracks and losses in the paint layer, its conservation state making it difficult to describe accurately and, above all, to appreciate the painterly qualities of the image of the man. What is interesting is that in the lower right corner of the painting, the number 40 can be seen painted in white paint. On the other hand, on the reverse in the upper left corner of the canvas there is a wax seal and the number 343 written in white chalk, and on the frame there are three stickers, the number written in white chalk 89, and the number 10 written in pencil in a circle.

History of the painting
The painting was probably created in the mid-17th century, in a wave of interest in the late paintings of Rembrandt, his imitator, of which there were many at the time, painted the image in question. It is known that the painting was in a German collection in the second half of the 18th century, most probably in the collection of Councillor Trible, and was regarded as a work by Rembrandt. And this is known thanks to the 1768 graphic reproductions of Georg Fridrich Schmidt (1712-1775), who, as a noted printmaker, created graphic reproductions of paintings, including those by Rembrandt. There is a well-known 1768 print by Schmidt held in the Prints Cabinet, State Art Collections, Dresden, depicting a painting by Rembrandt, which shows an elderly man with facial features indisputably identical to those of the model in the Louvre painting. The illumination of the painting seems different - the face is lit from the right - this is probably due to the graphic technique.

Then, it is not known exactly when, the painting found its way into the famous collection of the last king of Poland, Stanisław August. It was recorded in the king's collection inventory of 1795. After the king's collection was dispersed, the painting found its way to the Potocki family collection in the mid-19th century. At the time, it belonged to Mikołaj (Félix-Nicolas) Potocki (1845-1921), son of Mieczysław, grandson of the bargain-hunting Szczesny, heir to the Tulczyn estate and collection (now Ukraine). Mikołaj Potocki took the painting to Paris at the end of the 1870s and, together with the rest of the Tulczyn collection, kept it in a Parisian palace built for him, known as the 'Hôtel Potocki' at 27 avenue Friedland (now the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris), which was a fashionable literary salon, also valued for its interior furnishings. Count Potocki lent works from his collection to Parisian exhibitions, and he deposited the 'Portrait of an Elderly Man', then thought to be an original work by Remebrandt, in the Louvre for permanent display in 1907. Shortly before his death, by will dated 25 August 1920. Nicolas Potocki bequeathed the painting to the Paris museum, and his name was engraved on a stone plaque placed in the rotunda in front of the Apollo Gallery, where donors to the Louvre are commemorated. The remaining collection of Mikołaj Potocki was inherited by Alferd Potocki (1886-1958), the last Ordinate of Łańcut, and then dispersed.

Collection of King Stanisław August
The famous collections of the last king of Poland, created during his reign from 1764 to 1795, included paintings, sculpture, weapons, jewellery, a library and furnishings of his residence. At the end of his reign, the painting collection of Stanislaus Augustus numbered nearly 2,500 paintings, as documented in the inventory entitled 'Catalogue des Tableaux appartenant a Sa Majeste le Roi de Pologne', compiled in 1795. The king's painting collection included Dutch, Italian, French, German and Polish paintings. After the king's abdication, the collection was gradually dispersed, with basically no chance of the collection surviving. Today, around 400 paintings from this collection are identified.