Support The panel consists of three vertically grained oak planks (approx. 29.3, 22.5 and 25 cm), approx. 0.8 cm thick. At some point the top was shaped into a flat arch. At a later date the original, rectangular form was restored by attaching an oak insert with a lip join to the top. The reverse is bevelled at the bottom and on the left and right, and has regularly spaced saw marks. Remnants of the original bevel on the arched top indicate that the current height of the panel is identical to – or only slightly smaller than – the original height.
Preparatory layers The single, smooth, yellowish ground extends over the edges of the support at the bottom and on the left and right. It consists of white pigment particles with a small addition of minute earth pigment particles. The double ground on the oak insert consists of an off-white layer, containing white and some orange pigment particles, followed by an orange layer.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The figure was left in reserve in the background. A first lay-in was applied in subdued brownish tones, introducing light and dark areas, for example in the robe. This undermodelling was locally left exposed in the shadows of the clothing and shows through the thinly executed shadows in the face. The lighter areas of the flesh tones are thicker and more opaque with some apparent broad brushmarking. Coarse pigment particles are visible in the background and in the brushed-out and blended paint layers of the clothing. The ground appears to shimmer through in the background. The thick impasto in the ornaments of the feather contrast with the thinly applied headdress. Examination of a paint sample with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and polarized light microscopy (PLM) showed that Prussian blue is present in the bluish top layer on the oak insert. This indicates that the layer was added after 1704, the year in which the pigment was discovered.
Ige Verslype, 2008

Fair. The paint layer is abraded throughout. Discoloured overpaint is present in the background, along the right join, on the figure’s right shoulder and along the contour of his hair. The varnish is thick, glossy and has slightly yellowed.

…; collection Pieter verLoren van Themaat (1830-1885), Utrecht;¹¹NHA, ARS, Kop., inv. 289, p. 76, no. 171, as Rembrandt School (2 January 1886). his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller et al.), 30 October 1885, no. 138, as Anonymous, fl. 31.60, to the museum;²²NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 165, no. 465, as Rembrandt School (13 November 1885), no. 504 (24 December 1885); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, p. 76, no. 171, as Rembrandt School (2 January 1886). on loan to the Ministry of the Interior, 1915-35; on loan to the Ministry of Social Affairs, 1935-42; on loan to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, 1942-53; on loan through the DRVK since 1953

Object number: SK-A-1285

A young man in a turban and holding a bow in his left hand looks out at the viewer with a self-assured gaze. In the nineteenth century it was thought that this unsigned panel could have been an eighteenth-century signboard,⁷⁷A. Bredius, Catalogus van het Rijks-Museum van schilderijen, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1897, p. 76, no. 653. probably because of the arched top it then had. That shape, however, is not original.⁸⁸See Technical notes. In the course of time the proposed date has been shifted further forwards. In 1976 the painting was attributed to the Utrecht artist Jan van Bijlert,⁹⁹P.J.J. van Thiel et al., All the Paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: A Completely Illustrated Catalogue, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1976, p. 159. The Rijksmuseum archives show that it was regarded as a work of the Rembrandt School shortly after it was bought; see Provenance (notes). but the head is closer to the Haarlem School, and in particular to the work of Pieter de Grebber, as Huys Janssen and others observed.¹⁰¹⁰This attribution by Paul Huys Janssen and Wim Meulenkamp was first published in M. Breukink-Peeze, ‘“Eene fraaie kleeding, van den turkschen dragt ontleent”: Turkse kleding en mode “à la turque” in Nederland’, in H. Theunissen, A. Abelmann and W. Meulenkamp (eds.), Topkapi & Turkomanie: Turks-Nederlandse ontmoetingen sinds 1600, exh. cat. Leeuwarden (Museum Het Princessehof)/Rotterdam (Museum voor Volkenkunde) 1989, pp. 130-39, esp. p. 134, and p. 214, note 8. See also P. Huys Janssen, Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671), schilder in Utrecht, diss., Utrecht University 1994, p. 277, no. R 15. The RKD also regards it as a De Grebber on the evidence of attributions by Bernard Renckens and Willem van de Watering. Peter Sutton, who is preparing a monograph on Pieter de Grebber, endorses the attribution; written communication, 29 May 2018. The type of painting is indeed reminiscent of De Grebber, who depicted at least one other half-length figure with a bow.¹¹¹¹Signed and dated 1631. That painting was in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden until the Second World War; K. Woermann, Katalog der Königlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Dresden, coll. cat. Dresden 1908, p. 442, no. 1374; photo RKD. A similar work of a young man with a turban, bow and quiver was auctioned in 1993 as being in the manner of De Grebber; sale, The Hague (Glerum), 10 May 1993, no. 36 (ill.), but is now attributed to the Delft artist Willem van der Vliet; Recent Acquisitions 1993/1994, dealer cat. London (Rafael Valls) 1994, no. 36 (ill.). There are also similarities to De Grebber’s etchings, both in the subject and type of figure.¹²¹²See, for example, Half-Length Figure of a Man with a Bow and a Hammer in Oriental Dress, etching, 130 x 83 mm; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450-1700, VIII, Amsterdam 1953, p. 177, no. 17 (ill.). Stylistically, too, this very broadly brushed work is in keeping with the artist’s signed paintings. The fact that there is still some room for doubt is due mainly to a few weak passages, such as the folds of the cloak and the small, white collar, which is very poorly defined.¹³¹³The work has striking points of similarity to a 1639 half-length of a woman depicted as Diana by the Italian artist Cesare Dandini that may be a portrait historié, as noted by Michiel Roding and published in M. Breukink-Peeze, ‘“Eene fraaie kleeding, van den turkschen dragt ontleent”: Turkse kleding en mode “à la turque” in Nederland’, in H. Theunissen, A. Abelmann and W. Meulenkamp (eds.), Topkapi & Turkomanie: Turks-Nederlandse ontmoetingen sinds 1600, exh. cat. Leeuwarden (Museum Het Princessehof)/Rotterdam (Museum voor Volkenkunde) 1989, pp. 130-39, esp. p. 214, note 8; illustrated in G. Sievernich and H. Budde, Europa und der Orient 800-1900, exh. cat. Berlin (Martin-Gropius-Bau) 1989, p. 813. In view of De Grebber’s time in Denmark (see Biography) it is worth noting that there may have been work by Dandini in the Danish royal collection as early as the seventeenth century; see Sievernich and Budde (op. cit.), p. 813.

This could be a portrait historié, although the man’s features do not look sufficiently individualized.¹⁴¹⁴M. Breukink-Peeze, ‘“Eene fraaie kleeding, van den turkschen dragt ontleent”: Turkse kleding en mode “à la turque” in Nederland’, in H. Theunissen, A. Abelmann and W. Meulenkamp (eds.), Topkapi & Turkomanie: Turks-Nederlandse ontmoetingen sinds 1600, exh. cat. Leeuwarden (Museum Het Princessehof)/Rotterdam (Museum voor Volkenkunde) 1989, pp. 130-39, esp p. 134, suggests that it is a self-portrait of De Grebber. The painting is related to the many beturbaned tronies produced in the 1630s and ’40s, but in view of the bow in the young archer’s hand and the ornate costume one should not dismiss the possibility that this is the Old Testament figure of Jonathan, the son of King Saul, and close friend of David. Fearing that his father would kill David, whom he considered a rival for the crown, Jonathan told his friend that he would shoot three arrows near his hiding place to let him know whether it was safe for him to return to court or whether he should flee (1 Samuel 20). The half-length depiction of this biblical figure was unusual in Dutch seventeenth-century painting. The few artists who treated the story chose the moment when the two friends took leave of each other.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2026

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

M. Breukink-Peeze, ‘“Eene fraaie kleeding, van den turkschen dragt ontleent”: Turkse kleding en mode “à la turque” in Nederland’, in H. Theunissen, A. Abelmann and W. Meulenkamp (eds.), Topkapi & Turkomanie: Turks-Nederlandse ontmoetingen sinds 1600, exh. cat. Leeuwarden (Museum Het Princessehof)/Rotterdam (Museum voor Volkenkunde) 1989, pp. 130-39, esp. p. 134, and p. 214, note 8 (probably De Grebber, probably a self-portrait; attribution by Huys Janssen and Meulenkamp); P. Huys Janssen, Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671), schilder in Utrecht, diss., Utrecht University 1994, p. 277, no. R 15 (Haarlem, manner of De Grebber); P. Huys Janssen, Jan van Bijlert 1597/98-1671: Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam 1998, p. 197, no. R 16 (Haarlem, manner of De Grebber)

1887, p. 78, no. 653 (as Dutch School, late 18th century); 1903, p. 12, no. 111 (as Dutch School, second half of the 17th century); 1976, p. 159, no. A 1285 (as attributed to Jan van Bijlert)

Gerdien Wuestman, 2026, 'attributed to Pieter de Grebber, Young Archer Wearing a Turban, c. 1630 - c. 1640', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200108740