Watermark: None

Some light stains; small hole below the top edge at the right

…; sale, Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 424, as School of Rembrandt, with fifteen other drawings, fl. 480 for all, to the dealer J.H. Balfoort for the Vereniging Rembrandt (L. 2135);¹¹According to an inscription on the drawing; copy RKD; note RMA. from whom, fl. 5,049, with 166 other drawings, to the museum (L. 2228), 1889

Object number: RP-T-1889-A-2060

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

When Ferdinand Bol entered Rembrandt’s studio in 1636, he would have encountered several works by his master featuring pastoral themes. Rembrandt was particularly drawn to this genre between the mid-1630s and the mid-1640s.²²A.M. Kettering, ‘Rembrandt’s Flute Player: A Unique Treatment of Pastoral’, Simiolus 9 (1977), no. 1, p. 19. He portrayed his wife Saskia in pastoral garb as Flora several times, for instance in a 1634 painting in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (inv. no. 732)³³J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, 6 vols., Dordrecht 2015, vol. II (1986), no. A 93; vol. VI (2015), no. 125. and one from 1635 in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. NG4930),⁴⁴J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, 6 vols., Dordrecht 2015, vol. III (1989), no. A 113; vol. VI (2015), no. 138. which Bol copied in a drawing of circa 1636 (see under inv. no. RP-T-1975-85). Rembrandt’s interest in the pastoral also extended to the print medium, as is best illustrated by his etching of the Flute Player of 1642 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1961-1096).⁵⁵A. von Bartsch, Toutes les estampes qui forment l’oeuvre de Rembrandt et ceux de ses principaux imitateurs, composé par les Sieurs Gersaint, Helle, Glomy et P. Yver, 2 vols., Vienna 1797, no. 188; E. Hinterding and J. Rutgers, The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Rembrandt, 7 vols., Ouderkerk aan den IJssel 2013, no. 211.

The present drawing by Bol of a shepherdess, depicted with the traditional shepherd’s attributes, a drinking bottle and bag, corresponds stylistically and iconographically to this body of Rembrandt’s pastoral works. The low-cut dress, large hat with flowers, and crook are typical elements of the pastoral pictorial tradition, and also appear in this form in Rembrandt’s work. The dress, earrings, and plumed cap feature in the painting of Flora in the National Gallery, the crook in the painting in the Hermitage, and the large cap in Rembrandt’s etching The Flute Player. The drawing, in fact, fits so comfortably within Rembrandt’s idiom that it was attributed to the master for a long time. It was not until Keyes published the drawing as by Bol in 1977, and Sumowski provided ample arguments for this attribution in 1979, that the work was transferred to Bol’s oeuvre.

Characteristic for Bol’s hand are the eyes consisting of a little stroke and a circle, and the swift, almost calligraphic delineation. A convincing stylistic comparison can be made between this shepherdess and Bol’s drawing of Hagar and the Angel from circa 1640, also in the Rijksprentenkabinet (inv. no. RP-T-1930-27). Sumowski specifically pointed out the close similarities between the feet of the angel in that work and those of our shepherdess. The present drawing can be dated to around the same time or a little earlier, to the late 1630s, when Bol was looking at Rembrandt’s pastoral paintings so intently. Some years after his departure from Rembrandt’s workshop, Bol appears to have looked at this drawing when preparing the female figure in his haunting etching Hour of Death of circa 1644 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-190).⁶⁶F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, vol. 3, p. 32, no. 18; L. van Sloten, Ferdinand Bol: Etsen in eigen huis, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Van Loon) 2000, no. 23. Saxl was the first to note this correspondence in 1908, without knowing the author of the print.

In 1906, Hofstede de Groot suggested that the present work was a pendant to the drawing of a Standing Man in the Rijksprentenkabinet, which is now, however, given to Philips Koninck (1619-1688) (inv. no. RP-T-1889-A-2058).⁷⁷C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1182. Both drawings, which have similar dimensions, were part of the same lot at the important 1883 Jacob de Vos Jbzn sale, in which they were thought to be by Rembrandt. It is possible that they were cut to the same size – the shepherdess is missing the top of her crook at left – around the time of the sale in order to make them look like a pair.⁸⁸See W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, vol. VI (1982), p. 3200, under no. 1439x.

Bonny van Sighem, 2000

C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1189 (as Rembrandt); F. Saxl, ‘Zu einigen Handzeichnungen Rembrandts’, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 31 (1908), p. 341 (‘vollkommen unrembrandtisch’); H. Kauffmann, ‘Eine Vorzeichnung Rembrandts zur Dresdener Saskia von 1641’, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 41 (1919), p. 56, n. 45 (as Rembrandt); J.C. Van Dyke, The Rembrandt Drawings and Etchings, New York/London 1927, p. 76, fig. 55, pl. 14 (as Flinck); 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. 12, fig. 8 (as Rembrandt), with additional earlier literature; S. Slive, Drawings of Rembrandt, with a Selection of Drawings by his Pupils and Followers, 2 vols., New York 1965, vol. II, no. 312 (quality too good for work of a pupil); V. Loewinson-Lessing et al. (eds.), Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn: Paintings from Soviet Museums, Leningrad 1971, under no. 7 (as Rembrandt); sale, C.R. Rudolf, Amsterdam (Mak van Waay), 6 June 1977, under no. 101 (entry by G. Keyes); A.M. Kettering, ‘Rembrandt’s Flute Player: A Unique Treatment of Pastoral’, Simiolus 9 (1977), no. 1, p. 26, no. 27 (as pupil of Rembrandt); W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, vol. I (1979), no. 179x, with additional earlier literature, VI (1982), p. 3200, under no. 1439x; M. Schapelhouman, Het beste bewaard: Een Amsterdamse verzameling en het ontstaan van de Vereniging Rembrandt, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1983, no. 20; P. Schatborn, ‘Tekeningen van Rembrandts leerlingen’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 33 (1985), no. 2, p. 94, no. 10; M. Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and his Circle in the British Museum, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1992, p. 200, under no. 96; M. Royalton-Kisch, Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the British Museum, coll. cat. London 2010, under Flinck, no. 9; M. Royalton-Kisch, The Drawings of Rembrandt: A Revision of Otto Benesch’s Catalogue Raisonné, under no. 0386; H. Bevers, with a contribution by G.J. Dietz and A. Penz, Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, coll. cat. Berlin 2018, pp. 47, under no. 19

B. van Sighem, 2000, 'Ferdinand Bol, Standing Shepherdess, Amsterdam, c. 1636 - c. 1640', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200117930