Rijksmuseum

Object data

pen and brown ink, with some areas deliberately rubbed with a finger or brush; framing line in brown ink

height 189 mm × width 144 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso, in pencil: lower centre, by Hofstede de Groot, T 97 288 and VV / h 190 / b 144; lower right (with the 1906 Hofstede de Groot no.), deGr. 1181
stamped on verso: centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

Watermark: None

Condition

Brown stains, upper and lower right

Provenance

...; sale, Hendrik Valkenburg (1826-96, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (H.G. Tersteeg and F. Muller), 2 February 1897, no. 156, as Rembrandt, with four other drawings, fl. 68.20 for all, to the dealer H.J. Valk for the museum (L. 2228)

Object number: RP-T-1897-A-3474

Entry

The old man is seated in an arm-chair of a type that is often depicted in Rembrandt’s work (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-1930-10). The scene has been rather summarily sketched with fine lines and evenly-spaced hatching. Several contours were reinforced with broader strokes, most noticeably on the brim of the cap. The style is based on Rembrandt’s late drawings and shows affinity with the work of Willem Drost (1633-1659), one of Rembrandt’s pupils in the late 1640s and early 1650s.

The Seated Old Man can be seen as a variant of the figure of Jacob in the 1638 etching Joseph Telling his Dreams (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1987-160).¹ There is no tall cap in the etching, but Jacob is wearing one in a drawing of the same subject copied by a Rembrandt pupil, now in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 22936).² Many figures in the work of Rembrandt and his pupils wear this type of cap. Such a figure, seated full length in an arm-chair and wearing a tall red hat, was portrayed in a painting attributed to Rembrandt in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (inv. no. 828 I).³ That seated old man, who is holding a cane, has also been identified as the figure of Jacob,⁴ and the painting, from the 1650s, may have served as the model for the artist who sketched the museum’s drawing.

The drawing style is somewhat similar to that of the Lion at Rest (inv. no. RP-T-1901-A-4525). Like that sheet, the Seated Old Man could be a copy, even though there are no traces of black chalk underdrawing (the most common clue to the practice). There is also some similarity to the Standing Boy (inv. no. RP-T-1930-45), but which artist was responsible for these drawings remains unknown.

Peter Schatborn, 2018

Literature

C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1181 (as Rembrandt, c. 1645); J.C. Van Dyke, The Rembrandt Drawings and Etchings, New York/London 1927, p. 63 (as Gerbrand van den Eeckhout); M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de Nederlandsche teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, I: Teekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn school, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1942, no. 85 (as pupil); P. Schatborn, Catalogus van de Nederlandse tekeningen in het Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, IV: Tekeningen van Rembrandt, zijn onbekende leerlingen en navolgers/Drawings by Rembrandt, his Anonymous Pupils and Followers, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1985, no. 106, with earlier literature; C. Dittrich and T. Ketelsen et al., Rembrandt: Die Dresdener Zeichnungen, exh. cat. Dresden (Kupferstich-Kabinett) 2004, p. 97, under no. 31, n. 6

Citation

P. Schatborn, 2018, 'school of Rembrandt van Rijn, Seated Old Man with Tall Cap, Amsterdam, c. 1645 - c. 1655', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28627

(accessed 26 May 2024 09:27:02).