Watermark: None

Light foxing throughout;¹¹Typical of most drawings formerly in the collection of Hofstede de Groot, which at some point during his ownership were stored in unfavourably damp conditions. the ink faded throughout

…; collection Jonathan Richardson Jr (1694-1771), London (L. 2170); ? his sale, London (Langford), 5 February 1772 sqq. (drawings not specified); …; collection Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913), London (L. 1433); from whom purchased, as Rembrandt, with seven other drawings, through the mediation of the dealer Th. Agnew, by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, 1901;²²Hofstede 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-1930-52

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

Two sketches of a woman with a child in swaddling clothes have been combined on one sheet. At upper left she is standing and looking intensely at the child, and at lower right she is seated with the child on her lap.

The drawing is so sketchy and open that Rembrandt’s hand cannot be recognized. The flair displayed by whoever drew these sketches, which he undoubtedly absorbed from Rembrandt, is not on a par with his technical ability. What is lacking is the distinction Rembrandt usually makes between the precise rendering of facial areas and a broad sketchiness for the rest of the drawing. The woman’s hands have a bizarre shape with exaggeratedly pointed fingers, and above all the face of the sleeping child is so uninteresting and inexpressive that Rembrandt, who is always so eloquent in his portrayal of faces (cf. the pancake-eating toddler in inv. no. RP-T-1891-A-2424), cannot have made these two sketches.

The same hand was responsible for a drawing of Two Women with a Child, in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (inv. no. C 1405),³³Benesch, no. 304; C. Dittrich and T. Ketelsen et al., Rembrandt: Die Dresdener Zeichnungen, exh. cat. Dresden (Kupferstich-Kabinett) 2004, no. 89. as was first recognized by Saxl (though he believed that both sheets were by Rembrandt). In that sheet, we see the same broad sketchiness, the irregular accents and the rather clumsy expression on the child’s face. There are two drawings of sketches of a baby in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich (inv. no. unknown and no. 5039),⁴⁴Benesch, nos. 258, recto and 259; W. Wegner, Kataloge der Staatlichen Graphischen Sammlung München, I: Die niederländischen Handzeichnungen des 15.-18. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols., coll. cat. Berlin 1973, nos. 1105 and 1104; P. Schatborn, ‘Review of W. Wegner, Die Niederländsischen Handzeichnungen des 15-18. Jahrhunderts’, Berlin 1973’, Oud Holland 92 (1978), p. 134. that may also have been made by the same artist. Whether this was a pupil or a later imitator is unclear, but the exaggeratedly ‘Rembrandtesque’ sketchiness suggests the latter possibility.

Peter Schatborn, 2018

C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1298 (as Rembrandt, c. 1635); F. Saxl, ‘Zu einigen Handzeichnungen Rembrandts’, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 31 (1908), p. 345 (as Rembrandt, c. 1655); 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. 18 (as Rembrandt, 1636-37); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 302 (as Rembrandt, c. 1636); 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. 91, with earlier literature; H. Bevers, with a contribution by G.J. Dietz and A. Penz, Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, coll. cat. Berlin 2018, p. 267, under no. 141; M. Royalton-Kisch, The Drawings of Rembrandt: A Revision of Otto Benesch’s Catalogue Raisonné (online), no. 302

P. Schatborn, 2018, 'manner of Rembrandt van Rijn, Two Studies of a Woman and Child, after c. 1650', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200118043