Olaf Kraak/European Pressphoto Agency The Rembrandt work has been on view at several museums, including the Toledo Museum of Art.Two paintings â€" a Rembrandt self-portrait that was rediscovered in 2007 and one of Canaletto’s dazzling views of Venice â€" are the latest acquisitions made by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, officials there announced on Thursday.
“Rembrandt Laughing,’’ a 1628 image on copper, surfaced at an obscure auction house in England six years ago where it was attributed to a “follower of Rembrandt.’’ At the time, several dealers suspected that it was in fact by the Dutch master. Scientific testing and study by Ernst van der Wetering, one of the world’s leading Rembrandt experts, confirmed the attribution. It has been on view at several museums including the Toledo Museum of Art. The Getty bought it for an undisclosed price from the London dealers Hazlitt Gooden & Fox.
Canaletto’s “Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola,’’ has been on loan to the Getty since 2010. It had once been in the collection of Jayne Wrightsman, the New York philanthropist and longtime trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who put it up for auction at Sotheby’s in 2010, where it failed to sell. Fabrizio Moretti, the New York dealer, bought it from Sotheby’s right after the sale. It is he, art insiders said, who sold it to the Getty.
