Ferdinand Bol

E. Galichon (L.856);
B. Suermondt (L.415);
A. Freiherr von Lanna, Prague (L.2773),
his sale, Stuttgart, Gutekunst, 6 May 1910, lot 456, pl. XXXIX (as Rembrandt);
Gaston Ritter von Mallman,
his sale, Berlin, Lepke, 13 June 1918, lot 191, fig. 12 (as Rembrandt);
sale, London, Sotheby's, 29 November 1950, lot 20 (as Rembrandt);
With C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, 1953 (Neue Lagerliste 7, no. 416);
Robert Noortman, Borgloon;
sale, Amsterdam, Christie's, 25 November 1992, lot 561, where bought by the present owner 

F. Lugt, Musée du Louvre, Inventaire Général des dessins des écoles du nord, école Hollandaise, III, Rembrandt, Paris, 1933, under no. 1205;
O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, London, 1954, II, no. C6, fig. 543 (1973 ed. fig. 575);
W. Sumowski, Bemerkungnen zu Otto Beneschs Corpus der Rembrandt-Zeichnungen I, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 1956-7, VI, p. 260;
W. Wegner, Bermerkungen zu Zeichnungen Rembrandts und seiner Schule in der Albertina, Albertina Studien, 1967-8, p. 55, note 13;
J.S. Held, Rembrandt's Aristotle and other Rembrandt Studies, Princeton, 1969, p. 110, no. 9, p. 218, no. 43;
M. Bernhard, Rembrandt Handzeichnungen, II, Munich, 1976, p. 42;
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. 1, New York 1979, no. 184^x, reproduced

Unframed. Window mounted. On the bottom of the right-hand side, some areas where the iron-gall ink has burnt the paper. Also a tiny pin-point hole due to the same reason, on the right foot of the central figure and near the upper right corner. Overall the pen and ink and wash is very fresh, as catalogued, the grey wash is most probably added later.
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The attribution of this impressive drawing to Bol was first proposed by Frits Lugt in 1933.¹  Benesch and Sumowski both subsequently concurred, although the former suggested, without justification, that the drawing might be based on a lost original by Rembrandt.²  More recent scholars are, however, unanimous in considering this an original invention by a member of Rembrandt's studio, and Lugt's attribution to Bol remains convincing.

In support of the attribution, Sumowski compared this drawing to the Joseph Interprets the Dreams of the Prisoners, in Hamburg,³ which served as the basis for a painting in Schwerin.⁴  Writing in the catalogue of the recent, highly important Getty Museum exhibition, Peter Schatborn noted that the Hamburg drawing 'shows loose penwork...in which rather unsteady fine lines alternate with dark broad lines that only generally accentuate the forms.'⁵  These typical characteristics of Bol's style are also clearly in evidence in the present sheet, as are the broadly applied, sweeping washes and great narrative skill seen in may of his best drawings.  Bol was one of the most accomplished and successful of all Rembrandt's pupils.

The episode depicted is from the seventh chapter of the Apocryphal book of Tobit, which provided Rembrandt and his school with so many subjects.  Here, the young Tobias is in the process of identifying himself to his father's cousin -- and his own future father in law -- Raguel.

A version of the composition, omitting the figure of Raguel's wife Edna, who is seated to the right, is in Budapest.⁶

1.  Loc. cit.  
2.  See Literature.
3.  Inv. No. 22412; Sumowski, op. cit., 1979, no. 101.
4.  The Schwerin painting, formerly considered to be by Bol, is now thought to be the work of his pupil Godfried Kneller, but that does not undermine the attribution of the drawing to Bol.  See A. Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680): Rembrandt's Pupil, Doornspijk 1982, no. D1, and Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils. Telling the Difference, exhib. cat., Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009-10, p. 97, under no. 11
5.  Ibid.  
6.  Inv. 3665. See Wegner, op. cit., fig. 4