Literature:
Related Readings: Rembrandt et son Ecole, dessins du Musee du Louvre, Paris (1988); G. Cavalli-Bjorkman, Rembrandt and his pupils, Symposium in National Museum, Stokholm (2-3 October 1992): P. Schatborn, ‘Rembrandt from Life and from Memory’; Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings from the Collection of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Istanbul Pera Museum (2006).
Condition:
Good
Description / Expertise
A significant group of Rembrandt school drawings bear the collector’s mark of the Earl of Dalhousie, and since most are small sheets with one or more figure studies, it is generally assumed that they originate from a dismembered album of similar works. Dalhousie’s descendants owned two eighteenth century albums, one of them confined exclusively to drawings by Rembrandt and Rembrandt’s pupils. The contents of this album were scattered in the early 1920’s on the London art market, whereupon Franz Koenigs seized his opportunity. Dalhousie’s mark, a gothic capital letter D surmounted by a crown, is mostly seen on drawings by the Dordrecht painters Nicolaes Maes and Ferdinand Bol and also those of other pupils such as Willem Drost, Govaert Flinck and Samuel van Hoogstraten.
The female figure depicted on this sheet is not necessarily done from life. It could be a case of ‘remembered from life’ mainly, and indeed it was one of Rembrandt and his pupils’ main sources in the creative process. There are also stylistic and technical similarities between our figure and the figure of Agar found in the Louvre drawing ‘Agar a la Fontaine sur le Chemin de Shur’ which is firmly attributed to Rembrandt . But many of the group of Dalhousie drawings are – or have been – attributed to Nicolas Maes (Dordrecht 1634-1693 Amsterdam), and indeed the very presence of this mark has often been cited as evidence to support the attribution of a drawing to the artist. However, modern scholarship recognises the work of several different hands amongst the Dalhousie drawings.
The present study appears to some extent reminiscent of drawings by Govaert Flinck (Cleves 1615-1660 Amsterdam), but no specific comparisons can be made that are sufficiently compelling to support a convincing attribution . So this must for now remain one of the many Rembrandt school drawings still in search of its creator.
Price
gbp 6500.00 (Pound Sterling)
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