Abraham van Dijck Amsterdam 1635/6 - 1672

Paul Lindpaintner, Berlin;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Mak van Waay, 6 November 1935, lot 161, sold to Van Beuningen for Nlg. 2.300;
Sydney van den Bergh, Wassenaar (according to Sumowski);
Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 23 November 1955, lot 14;
Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 15 April 1964, lot 25;
Anonymous sale, Cologne Lempertz, 23/26 November 1977, lot 68;
Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 17 November 1988, lot 44 (all the above Lempertz sales as dated 1651).

W. Stechow, 'Rembrandt's Presentation in the Dark Manner', in Print Collector's Quarterly, vol. XXVII, October 1940, p. 365 (according to Sumowski 1983);
K.G. Boon, Rembrandt Etsen, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam-Rotterdam 1956, pp. 57-58, under cat. no. 100;
W. Sumowski, 'Nachtrage zum Rembrandtjahr 1956', in Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, vol. VII, 1957/8, p. 226, reproduced p. 256, fig. 32 (as dated 1651);
R. Hamann, Berlin 1969, p. 456 (according to Sumowski 1980);
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol III, New York 1980, pp. 1250, 1256 and 1306, under no. 599xx, reproduced p. 1769, fig. 39;
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. I, Landau/Pfalz 1983, p. 666, p. 669, no. 357, reproduced p. 678.

In this composition Van Dijck, who must have worked in Rembrandt's studio in the early 1650s, was influenced by Rembrandt's etching of the same subject, dated 1654 (see Bartsch 50). According to Sumowski this is Van Dijck's earliest dated painting (see Literature below, Sumowski 1980, p. 1250).

A copy of a prepatory drawing by Van Dijck for this composition is in the Ossolineum, Wroclaw (inv. no. 8706; see also under Literature below: Sumowski 1980, vol. III, p. 1306, no. 599xx, reproduced p. 1307). Another drawing, attributed to Van Dijck by Sumowski with the same subject and datable around the same period, shows similarities in the rendering of the onlooking crowd in the background (Idem, p. 1250, no. 572, reproduced).