Attributed to Carel Fabritius

L. Grassi (L.1171b);
W.R. Valentiner, his sale, Amsterdam, Mensing, October 25, 1932, lot 1 (as Rembrandt);
Eldridge R. Johnson, Moorestown, New Jersey

W. R. Valentiner, Rembrandt, Des Meisters Handzeichnungen, Klassiker der Kunst XXXI, Stuttgart/Berlin/Leipzig 1925, no. 21 (as Rembrandt);
G. Swarzenski and E. Schilling, Handzeichnungen alter Meister aus deutschem Privatbesitz, Frankfurt-am-Main 1924, no. 45 (as Rembrandt);
O. Benesch, Rembrandt, werk und Forschung, Vienna 1935, p. 35 (as Rembrandt);
R. Hamann, 'Hagars Abschied bei Rembrandt und im Rembrandt-Kreise,' Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft, VIII-IX, 1936, p. 554, fig. 117 (as possibly a school drawing, with corrected in reed pen by Rembrandt);
O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, second edition, enlarged and edited by E. Benesch, London and New York, 1973,  vol. III, no. 504 (as Rembrandt), reproduced fig. 665;
A. Blankert, 'Ferdinand Bol (een leerling van Rembrandt),' doctoral dissertation, Utrecht, 1976, p. 138, under A 3 (as possibly by a member of Rembrandt's studio);
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. 1, New York, 1979, p. 452, no. 214^x, (as Ferdinand Bol), reproduced. With extensive list of literature prior to 1973.

Paper surface somewhat dirty and lightly foxed. Ink extremely good and strong. Framed.
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The attribution history of this bold and distinctive drawing illustrates very well how scholarly understanding of the drawings of Rembrandt and his pupils has developed during the course of the past few decades.  Stylistically, the drawing is characterised by an unusual combination of extremely broad outlines, powerfully drawn with rapid strokes of the reed pen, contrasting with a network of rather finely drawn, repeated hatchings.  Though long considered an autograph work by Rembrandt dating from circa 1640-42, the attribution was first questioned in print as early as 1936, by Hamann (loc cit.), who speculated that the drawing might be a school work, extensively corrected and reworked by Rembrandt with a reed pen.  The drawing is, however, surely by a single hand, as was recognised by Albert Blankert, who mentioned it as a possible studio work in his doctoral dissertation on Ferdinand Bol (loc. cit.), without going so far as to propose an attribution to Bol himself.  That step was made by Werner Sumowski, in his Drawings of the Rembrandt School, noting a link with a later painting of the same subject by Bol, now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.¹

The overall boldness of the drawing, and some of the calligraphic aspects of the foliage, are indeed reminiscent of certain securely attributed drawings by Bol, such as the Hamburg Joseph Interprets the Dreams of the Prisoners,² but taken as a whole, the present work does not sit particularly comfortably within that artist's drawn oeuvre as we now understand it. More recent research has, however, presented another possibility which seems to offer a much more convincing solution.  Over a number of years, Peter Schatborn has been assembling a group of stylistically consistent drawings which he believes to be by Rembrandt's highly talented, somewhat enigmatic, and famously short-lived pupil, Carel Fabritius.  In 2006, Schatborn published a core group of drawings, together with his detailed arguments for attributing them to Fabritius,³ and it seems clear that the present drawing is by the same hand.  Many of the same contrasts between bold strokes and painstaking hatching that we see here, as well as features such as the almost caricaturish animals, can also be found in, for example, the Rijksmuseum's Adoration of the Shepherds, while the foliage, and details such as the fingers of the extended hands, are extremely similarly handled in another of Schatborn's Fabritius attributions, the Tobias with the Fish and the Angel, in Wroclaw.⁴

Although it is not known precisely when Fabritius studied with Rembrandt, it must have been around 1641-43.⁵  The stylistic qualities that we see here are clearly influenced by Rembrandt's drawings of that time, but are also highly personal and distinctive - as one would expect, considering how original Fabritius was as a painter.  As his drawing style comes, in turn, to be defined, it is very exciting to see a clear graphic personality emerging, and the addition of the present drawing to the small group that can now be attributed to Fabritius further enriches our understanding of the drawings of this remarkable artist.

1. W. Sumowski, Paintings of the Rembrandt School, vol. I, Landau/Pfalz 1983, no. 92

2. Hamburg, Kunsthalle; Sumowski, Drawings, no. 101

3. P. Schatborn, 'Drawings attributed to Carel Fabritius,' Oud Holland, 119, no. 2/3, 2006, pp. 130-138

4. Reproduced, Schatborn, op. cit., p. 130, fig. 2, and p. 136, fig. 13 respectively

5. F.J. Duparc, Carel Fabritius 1622-1654, exh. cat., The Hague, Mauritshuis, and Schwerin, Staatliches Museum, 2004-5, p. 17