The Entombment, over a Sketch of an Executioner / verso: Beheading of John the Baptist

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.

...; sale, Dirk Vis Blokhuyzen (1799-1869, Rotterdam), Rotterdam (D.A. Lamme), 23 (28) October 1871 sqq., no. 500 (‘Mise au tombeau. A la plume’), fl. 11, to the dealer S. Lamme, Rotterdam, for Dr August Sträter (1810-97), Aachen (L. 787);²²Copy RKD. his sale, Stuttgart (H.G. Gutekunst), 10 (14) May 1898 sqq., no. 1176 (‘Die Grablegung Christi. Geniale Sepiaskizze. Auf der Rückzeite eine Studie zur Enthaubtung Johannis des Taüfers’), 80 DM, to Paul Mathey (1844-1929), Paris;³³Copy RKD. ...; purchased from the dealer P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, after 1900;⁴⁴Hofstede de Groot notes, KB. by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930

ObjectNumber: RP-T-1930-28(R)

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

In the study on the recto, two men are carrying the dead body of Christ to the tomb. They have laid him on a cloth, held by two men at the centre. Using such a cloth was a natural and practical way of transporting a corpse, but in most of Rembrandt’s representations of this subject, including his grisaille of circa 1639 in the Hunterian Art Gallery at University of Glasgow (inv. no. GLAHA:43785),⁵⁵RRP III (1989), no. A 105; RRP VI (2015), no. 114. and the painting from The Passion series of circa 1635-39 for Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (inv. no. 396),⁶⁶RRP III (1989), no. A 126; RRP VI (2015), no. 162. Christ’s figure is not concealed behind one of the porters. The figure is, however, partially concealed in Dürer’s woodcut from the Small Passion series (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-1348),⁷⁷B. 44. an impression of which Rembrandt owned, and in a drawing by Rembrandt in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem (inv. no. O* 049),⁸⁸Benesch, no. 1208; M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem and elsewhere 1997, no. 332. which he copied from a sheet attributed to Perino del Vaga. Christ’s head usually appears as if sleeping – not dropping backwards with loose hair hanging down. These details emphasize the lifelessness of the body in the drawing. In this case, Rembrandt found a more realistic solution than he did in his paintings of this subject.

The figures in the drawing are very broadly indicated, with the exception of the most important part of the composition, the head of Christ. Rembrandt was primarily concerned with the arrangement of the figures and with Christ’s face. The curtain on the left shows a clear connection with the painting of The Entombment in Munich, in which it forms some sort of canopy above the tomb in which Christ’s body was placed after it was taken down from the cross in the background. Rembrandt used the curtain in the drawing as the starting point for a composition that differs from the painting since Christ is being carried upward from front left to right. At the left of the pen study, we see a weeping woman, who is only partially visible because a paper correction has been attached to the lower left-hand corner. This woman does not appear in the painting, but she is a motif that Rembrandt used in other scenes from Christ’s Passion.

If the paper is turned ninety degrees clockwise, the head and hand of a man whose body is just barely visible at the edge of the curtain can be seen. A similar first draft was made on the verso, which represents the Beheading of John the Baptist (fig. a, inv. no. RP-T-1930-28(V)). These two sketches are typical of the way in which Rembrandt began by sketching a light first draft to which he could easily make changes while working it out in darker lines. If necessary, he could make an entirely fresh start, as he did in the case of the executioner on the verso, whose head and body were drawn twice.

The sketches of the Beheading of John the Baptist are related to an etching by Rembrandt of the same subject (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-165).⁹⁹B. 92; New Hollstein: Rembrandt, no. 183. In the print, the executioner is standing (in reverse) in the same pose as in the sketches, but the figure of the Baptist was turned forty-five degrees further away. The sketch of the executioner under The Entombment scene on the recto is remarkably similar to the same figure in a drawing in the British Museum in London (inv. no. 1860,0616.130),¹⁰¹⁰Benesch, no. 479; M. Royalton-Kisch, Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the British Museum, coll. cat. (online 2010), no. 32. where the moments both before the beheading and after (with the decapitated body) are shown. We can also see a third figure there, possibly a priest. A third drawing, the Beheading of Anabaptist Martyrs in the Robert Lehman Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, probably the work of a pupil (inv. no. 1975.1.791),¹¹¹¹Benesch, no. 478; E. Haverkamp-Begemann (ed.), The Robert Lehman Collection, VII: Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-century European Drawings: Central Europe, the Netherlands, France, England, coll. cat. New York/Princeton 1999, no. 77. shows the same group as on the left side of the British Museum drawing, but here the figures have been sketched in profile. Based on this relationship, it has been suggested that the models for the figures in this group arranged themselves as in a sort of play or ‘Chamber-play’ (Kamerspel), to use Van Hoogstraten’s term, so that Rembrandt and his students could draw them from various angles.¹²¹² S. van Hoogstraten, Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst, Rotterdam 1678, p. 192. Rembrandt’s drawing in London could have been done in this fashion, but the sketch on the verso of the present drawing does not feature the same group in the same poses and was probably sketched from scratch as a preparatory study for the etching.

The etching is dated 1640 and the painting of The Entombment in Munich was completed in February 1639, as is stated in a letter from Rembrandt to Constantijn Huygens (see inv. no. RP-T-1947-213). There are a few possibilities for the dating of our drawing. If it were made before the completion of the Munich painting, the studies for the Beheading of John the Baptist must have been drawn at least about a year before the 1640 etching. If both the studies and the etching date from 1640, Rembrandt must have made The Entombment drawing after the painting of the same theme, perhaps even quite some time later. Except for the curtain on the left side, the drawing of The Entombment bears no relation to the composition of the group in the painting. It is thus more likely that this drawing is a new exploration of the theme and that both it and the sketches of the Beheading coincided in date with the etching of 1640. The stylistic similarities between The Entombment and, for example, A Man Helping a Rider to Mount a Horse (inv. no. RP-T-1930-32(R)) also support a dating of circa 1640-41.

Peter Schatborn, 2017

C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1274 (c. 1646); W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, II (1934), no. 502 (c. 1638-40); M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de Nederlandsche teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, I: Teekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn school, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1942, nos. 48 and 25 (c. 1639); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 482 (c. 1640-41); 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. 19, with earlier literature; H. Bevers, P. Schatborn and B. Welzel, Rembrandt, the Master and his Workshop: Drawings and Etchings, exh. cat. Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) and elsewhere 1991-92, no. 19; M. Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and his Circle in the British Museum, exh. cat. London 1992, p. 97, under no. 35; K.A. Schröder and M. Bisanz-Prakken (eds.), Rembrandt, exh. cat. Vienna (Graphische Sammlung Albertina) 2004, no. 102; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 79-80 and 88, figs. 86 and 73; P. Schatborn, C. van Tuyll van Serooskerken and H. Grollemund, Rembrandt dessinateur: Chefs-d’oeuvres des collections en France, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 2006-07, p. 90, under no. 27, fig. 42; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, 2 vols., coll. cat. Paris 2010, p. 47, under no. 9; L. de Witt et al., Rembrandt et la figure du Christ, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) and elsewhere 2011-12, pp. 110-11, fig. 4.2; P. Black and E. Hermens, Rembrandt and the Passion, Munich/London/New York 2012, pp. 60-61, fig. 27; H. Bevers, with a contribution by G.J. Dietz and A. Penz, Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, coll. cat. Berlin 2018, p. 227, under no. 117.

P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, The Entombment, over a Sketch of an Executioner / verso: Beheading of John the Baptist, Amsterdam, c. 1640 - c. 1641', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28140