Watermark: None visible through lining

Light foxing throughout; laid down; a piece of paper added at the lower edge

…; collection Émile-Louis-Dominique Calando (1840-99), Paris (L. 837); his sale, Paris (Roblin), 11 December 1899 sqq., no. 188, as Rembrandt van Rijn (‘Etudes de personages et d’animaux, quatre dessins à la plume et au lavis d’encre de chine. Des collections Joshua Reynolds, Richardson, Guichardot.’), with three other drawings, bought in;¹¹According to an inscription on the drawing. his son Émile-Pierre-Victor Calando (1872-1953), Paris (L. 426b);…; collection Eugène Rodrigues (1853-1929), Paris;²²Note RMA. …; sale, Paul Mathey (1844-1929, Paris), Paris (Drouot), 28 November 1924, as Rembrandt van Rijn, frs. 3,800, to the dealer Marignane, Paris;³³Copy RKD. …; collection Isaäc de Bruijn (1872-1953) and his wife, Johanna Geertruida de Bruijn-van der Leeuw (1877-1960), Spiez and Muri, near Bern;⁴⁴Note RMA. by whom donated to the museum (L. 2228), as school of Rembrandt, 1949, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum, 1960

Object number: RP-T-1961-87

Credit line: De Bruijn-van der Leeuw Bequest, Muri, Switzerland

A boy is sitting on a stool, trimming the coat of a dog lying on his lap. The original pen lines have bled somewhat as a result of a thin, wet layer of wash. After the wash was applied, the artist used a pen to clarify the fingers of the hand holding the dog as well as the animal itself. The contours of the upper part of the boy’s body are rather thin and sketchy; his legs are drawn with thicker, unbroken lines. The drawing was trimmed at the top and bottom edges, truncating a broad brushstroke at the top and cutting off the boy’s legs at the bottom. The zigzag hatching on his right leg, which was probably longer before the sketch was reduced in size, is an independent detail that does not blend in with the rest of the drawing. After the sheet was reduced, it was mounted on a secondary support and several horizontal brush lines were drawn at the lower edge to give the scene a new border, along with framing lines on the top and sides.

The style of the sketch is based on Rembrandt’s drawings of the 1650s (cf. Jael Killing Sisera, inv. no. RP-T-1930-8). In subject-matter and composition (a figure isolated in an ill-defined setting), as well as handling (a mixture of thin penwork and generous amounts of wash), there are similarities to drawings attributed to Abraham van Dijck, such as the studies of a Young Woman Seated on the Floor in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich (inv. no. 1399), a Young Oriental Seated next to a Table in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (inv. no. 3040), a Young Man Reading at a Table and an Old Woman Reading, both in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 8509 and KdZ 2689).⁵⁵Sumowski, Drawings, III (1980), nos. 586*, 587* and 593**; H. Bevers, with a contribution by G.J. Dietz and A. Penz, Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, coll. cat. Berlin 2018, nos. 54-55.

Peter Schatborn, 2018

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. 96 (as school of Rembrandt, c. 1650s), with earlier literature

P. Schatborn, 2018, 'attributed to Abraham van Dijck, A Boy Trimming his Dog’s Coat, Amsterdam, c. 1650 - c. 1660', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200118049