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.

…; collection Paul Mathey (1844-1929), Paris;²²Note RMA. ? his sale, Paris (M. Delestre and P. Roblin), 18 May 1901, no. 63, as Rembrandt; …; purchased from the dealer P. Roblin, Paris, as Rembrandt, with five other drawings, by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, 1901;³³Hofstede de Groot notes, KB. by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930

Object number: RP-T-1930-48

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

Seidlitz was the first to doubt the attribution of the present drawing to Rembrandt, followed by Henkel in 1942. The drawing shows weaknesses, such as the mask-like face of the old man at the upper left of the sheet and the clumsily drawn hands of the seated old woman. Schatborn compared the drawing style to Girl Leaning on the Bottom Half of a Dutch Door and Sketches of her Head (inv. no. RP-T-1930-50), and attributed both sheets to Drost.⁷⁷P. Schatborn, ‘Tekeningen van Rembrandts leerlingen’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 33 (1985), no. 2, p. 103. Characteristic in these drawings are the precise, convincingly drawn lines, which are – according to Schatborn –typical for the artist’s later works. Drost’s customary areas of hatching are missing in the female figure, but are present in moderation on the inside of the man’s headcloth.

Schatborn further suggested that the head of the old man (in reverse) may have been taken from Rembrandt’s drawing of Nathan Admonishing David in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 5255).⁸⁸Benesch, no. 947; H. Bevers, Rembrandt: Die Zeichnungen im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, kritischer Katalog, coll. cat. Berlin 2006, no. 54. A second version of this drawing is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 29.100.934).⁹⁹Benesch, no. 948; H. Bevers, Rembrandt: Die Zeichnungen im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, kritischer Katalog, coll. cat. Berlin 2006, p. 184, repr. That work, which is still considered autograph on the museum’s website, was described as a school piece by Bevers in 2006. Interestly, the head of the bearded old man in the Rijksmuseum study is closer to the figure of Nathan in the New York drawing than that in Berlin. Could the New York version, in fact, be an original drawing by Drost, inspired by the Berlin version? The model for the other figure in the Amsterdam sheet was probably taken from one of Rembrandt’s paintings of old women of the 1650s (e.g. Old Woman Reading in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Drumlanrig Castle, near Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway).¹⁰¹⁰RRP, VI (2015), no. 241.

Bonny van Sighem, 2000/Marleen Ram, 2018

Tentoonstelling van teekeningen van Oude Hollandsche meesters uit de verzameling van Dr. Corn. Hofstede de Groot, exh. cat. The Hague (Haagsche Kunstkring) 1902-03, no. 46 (as Rembrandt); Rembrandt-Hulde te Leiden. Schilderijen en teekeningen van Rembrandt en van schilderijen van andere Leidsche Meesters der Zeventiende Eeuw, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 1906, no. 69 (as Rembrandt); C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1294 (as Rembrandt, c. 1654); W. von Seidlitz, ‘Die Sammlung der Rembrandt-Zeichnungen von Dr. C. Hofstede de Groot im Haag’, Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, N.S. 28 (1917), p. 253 (as Rembrandt pupil or follower); 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. 90 (possibly by a Rembrandt pupil), with earlier literature; O. Benesch, Rembrandt: Ausstellung im 350. Geburtsjahr des Meister, exh. cat. Vienna (Graphische Sammlung Albertina) 1956, no. 121 (as Rembrandt); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 1097, and p. 311, under no. 1164 (as Rembrandt); P. Schatborn, ‘Tekeningen van Rembrandts leerlingen’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 33 (1985), no. 2, pp. 102-3, fig. 20; W.W. Robinson, ‘Review of P. Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt, his Anonymous Pupils and Followers, The Hague 1985’, Kunstchronik 41 (1988), p. 584; G.C. Sciolla, Da Leonardo a Rembrandt: Disegni della Biblioteca Reale di Torino, exh. cat. Turin (Palazzo Reale) 1990, p. 354, under no. 146; H. Bevers, P. Schatborn and B. Welzel, Rembrandt, the Master and his Workshop: Drawings and Etchings, exh. cat. Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) and elsewhere 1991-92, p. 142, under no. 45, n. 3