16
June 2026

The Wallace Collection's Rembrandts From Twelve to One but now Three and Two Halves

Welcome to The Arts Society Norwich
Tuesday, June 16, 2026 - 19:00
JIC Conference Centre, Colney Lane Norwich NR4 7UH
Online Event

When the Wallace Collection was bequeathed to the British nation in 1897 it was believed that the museum had twelve paintings by Rembrandt. Later, however, most of these pictures were re-assigned to other artists, to the extent that a hundred years later it was thought that there was only one genuine work by the great Dutch master - a wonderful portrait of the artist’s son Titus. Since then further research has suggested that in fact four of the other paintings are also wholly or partly by Rembrandt. But who decides things like this, and how do they make their decisions? Through telling this fascinating story we'll see how connoisseurship changes over time and the enormous impact that this can have on how we look at works of art.   

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Mr Stephen Duffy

Educated at New College, Oxford, and formerly Senior Curator of the Wallace Collection where he had particular responsibility for exhibitions and nineteenth-century paintings. He has given countless tours of the Collection for visiting groups and many lectures on its art and other related subjects. His latest publication, The Discovery of Paris, is a book on early nineteenth-century watercolour views of Paris by major British artists.