When art dealer Jan Six saw the Portrait of a Young Gentleman in a Christie’s auction catalogue, he instantly knew that it could not possibly be a work that had been attributed to ‘the circle of Rembrandt’, but that the master must have painted it himself. The last time a hitherto unknown painting by Rembrandt was discovered was in 1974, when The Baptism of the Eunuch came to light.

But how does one convince the world of such a discovery? Does something like an absolute eye exist? And how special is such a painting in comparison to all the other known works by the most famous Dutch painter? In this book Jan Six takes the reader on a compelling and erudite journey, all about his exciting discovery and a boy’s dream come true, showing the Portrait of a Young Gentleman through the eyes of his discoverer.

Jan Six (1978) studied art history and worked at Sotheby’s London and in Amsterdam as head of the Old Master Paintings department. Since 2008 he operates as an art dealer and runs his own gallery, specialised in Dutch and Flemish Old Master Paintings and Drawings. ‘It’s absolutely miraculous that the taste, art sense and sharp eye of Jan Six, born in 1978, are identical to those of Jan Six, born four centuries earlier in 1618. It rarely happens that generations are being bridged in this way and a forgotten Rembrandt is rediscovered.’ — Geert Mak