Note 84 to Chapter 6 of the author's George Eliot and the Visual Arts, which Yale University Press published in a 1979. It has been included in the Victorian web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
See Neil MacLaren, The Dutch School (London: Publications Department of the National Gallery, 1960), pp. 316-17. The painting is now called Bust of a Bearded Man in a Cap. As MacLaren notes, "the man here may possibly be Jewish and is bearded; there is no other reason for supposing him a rabbi." Like many of Rembrandt's so-called "Jewish" subjects, this painting first received the appellation in the nineteenth century. George Eliot may also have known the Rembrandt "Rabbi" in the Queen's collection at Hampton Court.
Last modified 20 September 2000