Object data
pen and brown ink, with some areas deliberately rubbed with a finger or brush; later additions in grey wash
height 137 mm × width 105 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn (school of)
Standing Boy Holding a Whip and Raising his Right Hand
Amsterdam, c. 1640 - c. 1650
Inscriptions
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inscribed on verso: upper right, in pencil, Collection Réville / Ch. Gasc / Ch. Gasc; below this, in pencil, t Himpel; below this, in black ink, f. 906.-; centre, in pencil, Dutuit III; below this, in pencil, R R J(?); lower left, in blue ink, 43; lower centre, in pencil, Rembrandt; lower right, in pencil (with the 1906 Hofstede de Groot no.), 1291
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stamped on verso: centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
Watermark: Fragment of a foolscap
Condition
Light foxing throughout
Provenance
...; collection Narcisse Révil (1779-1844), Paris;1 his sale, Paris (B. Bonnefons de Lavialle et al.), 29 (31) March 1842 sqq., no. 222, as Rembrandt (‘Une jeune garçon dirigeant ses pas vers la gauche [...] Croquis à la plume et au bistre. Haut. 13 cent. 6 mill., larg. 10 cent. 5 mill.’), 14.50 frs.;2 ...; collection Charles Gasc (c. 1822- after 1869), Paris;3 ? his sale, Paris (J.E. Vignères), 17 January 1865, no. 151 (drawings not specified);4 ...; sale, Charles-Philippe, Marquis de Chennevières-Pointel (1820-99, Paris) and Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913, Edinburgh and London), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 20 November 1882 sqq., no. 167, as Rembrandt, fl. 31, to the dealer Van Gogh, Paris;5 from whom purchased by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, after 1900;6 by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930
Object number: RP-T-1930-45
Credit line: Gift of C. Hofstede de Groot, The Hague
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
The pose of the boy with his raised right index finger and a whip in his left hand suggests that he is giving riding lessons. This theme is exceptional in the Rembrandt school; there are no other works in which such a horseman is depicted.
In the early literature, the figure was identified as Jan Six,7 who wears a similar hat in Rembrandt’s famous painted portrait of 1654 still in the Six collection,8 and the drawing was dated 1647, the date of Rembrandt’s etching of Six (e.g. inv. RP-P-OB-578).9 It was then suggested that the figure was Rembrandt’s son Titus at 15 years of age, so the drawing was dated to circa 1656.10 Both theories are based on the assumption that Rembrandt or a close follower drew the boy, using a known person from his circle as the model.
These theories can no longer be supported. It is not always easy to distinguish between drawings done from memory and those done from life, and we cannot determine to which category the present drawing belongs. The style, with heavy contours, suggests the influence of Rembrandt’s drawings of the 1640s.
Peter Schatborn, 2018
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1291 (as Rembrandt, c. 1650); 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. 91 (as probably not by Rembrandt, c. 1656?); 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. 105, with earlier literature; A. Müller-Schirmer, ‘Grenzen im Licht. Über Licht und Schatten in den Zeichnungen von Rembrandt’, Oud Holland 121 (2008), no. 1, p. 76
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2018, 'school of Rembrandt van Rijn, Standing Boy Holding a Whip and Raising his Right Hand, Amsterdam, c. 1640 - c. 1650', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28626
(accessed 25 September 2024 17:58:21).