Portrait of Nicolaes Bruyningh

Catalogue number: Bredius 268.

Rembrandt's portrait commissions from the regent class evaporated into thin air after 1640. However, this was not the case with merchants, manufacturers, tradesmen and professionals. The rate at which Rembrandt painted and etched portraits of people in this category never deviated after 1636.

Rembrandt's sitters of the 1640s and 1650s included numerous rentiers like Jan Six and Nicolaes Bruyningh (c. 1629-1680). Both men indulged themselves with high living and art collecting, leaving their heirs with mountains of possessions and considerable debt.