Watermark: None

Light foxing throughout¹¹Typical of most drawings formerly in the collection of Hofstede de Groot, which at some point during his ownership were stored in unfavourably damp conditions.

…; purchased from Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913), London, through the mediation of Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, 1901;²²Hofstede de Groot note, KB. by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930

Object number: RP-T-1930-20

Credit line: Gift of C. Hofstede de Groot, The Hague

An angel has appeared on a cloud and proclaims the news of Christ’s birth to the shepherds, ‘and they were sore afraid’ (Luke 2:8-11). Whereas the angel has spread his arms to announce the glad tidings, the shepherd below has raised his arms in fright. One of the shepherds in the foreground is kneeling, the other looks up and walks away. A cow is standing up with some difficulty, and sheep are running away.

The scene was depicted with a lively, but controlled handling of line. The movement of the approaching cloud, the angel’s robe slightly billowing in the wind and the sheep running off are all rendered sketchily. In the left foreground, the drawing has been more fully worked out. Rembrandt apparently had some difficulty with the pose of the kneeling shepherd and covered a large part of the figure with white. The outline of the angel’s face and his thumb have also been corrected with opaque white because they were too dark.

The passages of grey wash, as in other drawings by Rembrandt, were added later (see inv. nos. RP-T-1930-63, RP-T-1901-A-4523 and RP-T-1898-A-3689). They do not enhance the modelling of the forms, as can most clearly be seen in the figure of the standing shepherd on the left.

In an etching of 1634, Rembrandt portrayed the Annunciation to the Shepherds as a nocturnal scene (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1962-19).³³B. 44; New Hollstein: Rembrandt, no. 125. The fleeing animals, the cow trying to get up and three shepherds, one kneeling and two standing, are also depicted in that print, but on a smaller scale and in a larger setting. The composition of the drawing, which has been trimmed to an arch at the top, is reminiscent of the paintings in the series of scenes from The Passion now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, which Rembrandt made for Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, especially The Ascension of 1636 (inv. no. 398).⁴⁴RRP III (1989), no. A 118; RRP VI (2015), no. 145 (1636).

The drawing was once generally dated to the 1650s, but the rather lively and varied treatment of line, as well as the strong hatching, indicate a somewhat earlier dating of about 1650. Another drawing by Rembrandt in the museum’s collection, with a calmer version of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, is dated circa 1655 (inv. no. RP-T-1930-21).

Peter Schatborn, 2017

C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1266; W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, I (1925), no. 290 (c. 1650); M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de Nederlandsche teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, I: Teekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn school, coll. cat. The Hague 1942, no. 66 (1654-55); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 999 (c. 1655-56); 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. The Hague 1985, no. 38; M. de Bazelaire and E. Starcky, Rembrandt et son école: Dessins du Musée du Louvre, exh. cat. Paris 1988-89, p. 82, under no. 74; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 98 and 100, fig. 95

P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, Annunciation to the Shepherds, Amsterdam, c. 1650', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200117987