The studio of Rembrandt van Rijn produced a remarkable series of small, sketch-like studies of the face of Jesus. These seem to have been painted from a live model, rather than the conventional ‘character’ or ‘fantasy’ heads, commonly known as ‘tronies’. In the inventory of his possessions, made at the time of his bankruptcy in 1656, this is explicitly mentioned: ‘Head of Christ, done from life’. From the inventory lists, it transpires that Rembrandt still had a fair number of these paintings unsold in his studio and that they were all attributed to Rembrandt. Several of these panels have survived. Some of these are now attributed to assistants in Rembrandt's studio, others are considered autograph pictures.

Seven of these paintings, being very closely related in style, conception, format and technique, are considered to be the core of this group. In 2011, an exhibition, Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, examined the position of these images in Rembrandt's oeuvre. In an attempt to address several questions of dating, technique, function and attribution, all but one painting of the core group were subjected to closer examination. X-radiographs were made and some infrared reflectography was done. Only the painting in Philadelphia was more extensively examined.

The one painting in the exhibition that could not be studied at that time was a Head of Christ in a private collection. Its appearance in the 2011 exhibition was the first time it was on public display since it was sold at the De Boer Gallery in 1956 (fig. 10.1 and pl. 10.1). The present essay presents a technical examination of this painting that supports an attribution to Rembrandt himself.