Juno Restored

In the early 1660s Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn, bleary-eyed and improvident, set up his easel to paint Hendrickje Stoffels as Juno, swathing her in paste jewels and the rich worn old velvets he loved so well. As patrons of the current cinema Rembrandt will recall (TIME, Dec. 14), Hendrickje was his housekeeper and mistress. Rembrandt died a pauper, was forgotten for generations, was rediscovered and has now become among the highest priced and most frequently forged of all Old Masters. Last week it was made known that another Rembrandt, just discovered, had reached the U. S. Art critics put aside the suspicion that an announcement of this sort usually brings, for here was a Rembrandt whose authenticity was not likely to be questioned. Lost for 50 years, its history was nevertheless known. It was Hendrickje as Juno.

When the picture was half finished, faithful Hendrickje Stoffels (much more plump in life than in the film) died. Rembrandt was too affected to finish it. In the summer of 1665 Harmen Becker, a pawn broker of Amsterdam, came to press the painter for 537 guilders. Pawnbroker Becker discovered in the studio the still unfinished picture of Juno. Pawnbroker Becker had an eye. He promised to take something off Rembrandt's debt if Juno were finished and turned over to him. Rembrandt complied and, once delivered to Pawnbroker Becker, Juno disappeared for many years.

In the 19th Century it turned up in the collection of one J. Thos. Stanley, Palmerston House, Turnbridge-by-Sheffield. A generation later it was hanging on the Bavarian walls of Otto Wesendonck, husband of Richard Wagner's greatest love, Matilde Wesendonck.

Year ago the little art museum of Bonn on the Rhine cleared out of its cellars a collection of pictures that had been gathering dust for nearly 30 years, put them up at public auction in nearby Cologne. One grimy picture of a plump young woman in a gilt crown and scepter went up on the block and was knocked down for 700 marks ($300) to Dutch Dealer David Katz. Back to Amsterdam, after 270 years, the picture went. It was cleaned and instantly recognized as the original Juno--a bargain at $250,000. In search of some such price the picture reached New York last week.

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