Attributed to Govert Flinck

Earl of Dalhousie (L.717a);
with P. & D. Colnaghi, London, 1922;
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 14 November 1988, lot 120

Ink tone a little less golden/olive than in catalogue illustration, and overall impression crisper and stronger. General condition very good. Window mounted. Small repair, top left corner, and small thin spot, top centre. A little very light foxing and surface dirt.
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The so-called Dalhousie albums from which this drawing originates contained numerous drawings by Rembrandt and his school (see also lot 67).  The majority of them have generally been attributed to Maes, and Professor Werner Sumowski kindly informed us at the time of the 1988 sale that he proposed to include the present work under that name in the forthcoming supplement to his Drawings of the Rembrandt School.  More recently, however, Peter Schatborn has attributed to Govert Flinck several drawings that are very similar in execution to this, in particular a double-sided sheet in Dijon,¹ and in the light of this the alternative attribution of the present sheet to Flinck seems preferable. 

In around 1635-6, Flinck spent approximately a year in Rembrandt's studio.  The drawings in the group that includes the Dijon sheet and also, we believe, the present work all show a considerable debt to Rembrandt's drawing style of the mid-1630s, and Schatborn therefore considers them early works, executed either while Flinck was training with Rembrandt or very soon thereafter.

The subject of the healing of the blind Tobit was very popular with Rembrandt and his pupils.

1.  P. Schatborn, 'The Early, Rembrandtesque Drawings of Govert Flinck', in Master Drawings, 2010, vol. XLVIII, no. 1, 2010, pp. 23-4, figs. 22-23