- 156
Attributed to Govert Flinck
Description
- Govert Flinck
- recto: studies of two men in hats and a boy leaning on his hands, all head and shoulders;verso: head study of a sleeping boy in a large hat
- Pen and brown ink and wash, within brown ink framing lines (recto); pen and brown ink, within black chalk rectangle (verso);
bears inscriptions, in black chalk, verso: 433 and S.H. yes
Provenance
his sale, Amsterdam, Yver, 26 November 1759, lot 433 (according to inscription on old mount: N. 433 uit J. de Barry's / Verk. in Nov 1759);
Earl of Warwick (according to pencil inscription on mount).
Catalogue Note
This delightful, double-sided sheet of bust-length figure studies was clearly strongly influenced by similar works by Rembrandt, such as the superb sheet of Four Studies of Male Heads, in the Abrams Collection, and the technically similar, larger sheet at the Barber Institute, Birmingham.1 On the basis of connections with dated etchings, the Birmingham sheet has been dated circa 1636, and the present drawing by a close associate of Rembrandt must have been executed not long after this.
The most plausible attribution is to Govert Flinck, who spent one year as Rembrandt's pupil in 1635-6. The recent exhibition at the Getty Museum2 defined more clearly than ever before the differences between the works of the various artists in Rembrandt's immediate circle, and the present drawing fits very well into the image of Flinck that emerged from this exhibition. In particular, there are close parallels with the Departure of the Prodigal Son, from the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett,3 a drawing which is entirely different from the present sheet in terms of composition, but similar in the handling of many details. In both drawings we see very comparable contrasts between bold, flowing outlines and more nervous, descriptive rendering of smaller details, the broad handling of the wash is very similar, as are the facial features of the figures, and the nervous, multi-directional hatching is also very characteristic.
The pencil inscription on the mount that gives the Warwick provenance also states that the drawing represents Rembrandt's son Titus, and that it was authenticated as a Rembrandt by Sir Seymour Haden.
1. O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, 6 vols., London 1973, cat. nos. 339 and 340 respectively.
2. Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils. Telling the Difference, exh. cat., Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009-10.
3. Ibid, pp. 69-71, cat. no. 5.2 illustrated