The Dutch offer for The Standard Bearer will be achieved through a combination of public and private financing. Among the sources, the Rembrandt Association will contribute €15 million ($17 million), in addition to the contribution of the Rijksmuseum Fund of €10 million ($11.3 million). The Dutch State will make up the remainder of €150 million ($170 million), of which €19 million will come from the Museum Purchase Fund.

Rembrandt was thirty years old when he painted The Standard Bearer. He painted himself in the portrait in the most beautiful historical clothing. He consciously places himself in the northern tradition of portraits of standard-bearers by famous artists such as Dürer, Lucas van Leyden and Goltzius.

Standard-bearers had a dangerous task in the militia of the 17th century: on the battlefield they went ahead of the troops in shiny clothing and brandishing flags. The militia had an essential role in the Eighty Years' War, the revolt against Spanish rule. At the same time, The Standard Bearer shows Rembrandt's ambition to paint a group portrait for the Amsterdam militia, at the time the most valued commission a painter could be awarded. Rembrandt succeeded six years later when he was commissioned to paint The Night Watch.

Rembrandt made about 340 paintings. Most of these are in museums and private collections. There are 44 paintings by Rembrandt in the Netherlands, 22 of which are in the Rijksmuseum.

Few paintings by Rembrandt appear on the auction market, with the highest price ever paid at auction for his work set at 20.2 million pounds ($33.2 million) for a portrait at a Christie's London sale in 2009. The Standard Bearer is considered the most important of Rembrandt's oeuvre left in private hands, and one of his finest paintings.

"The quality and the fact that this painting marks Rembrandt's artistic breakthrough makes it an unparalleled work by the master," said Dibbits.