Controversy regarding the Frick Collection’s Polish Rider first began in 1984 when a member of the Rembrandt Research Project, John Bruyn, raised suspicions. Bruyn claimed that the painting was more characteristic of Willem Drost, one of Rembrandt’s students, than the master himself. Polish Rider has now been subjected to examination by the Rembrandt Research Project four times (1969, 1989, 1994, and 1996) with the last report claiming the painting is an authentic Rembrandt, but with an additional hand in some areas of the painting– likely due to the artist’s financial problems and rushed works in the 1650s.
By Annie Muller
Source:
Vogel, Carol. “Rembrandt At Frick Passes,” The New York Times (24 October 1997). https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/24/arts/inside-art.html [accessed 11 May 2021].