In the 1986 sale catalogue, it was noted that Professor Werner Sumowski had confirmed the attribution, and would include this drawing in a forthcoming supplement to his
Drawings of the Rembrandt School, but no such supplement was ever published. Koninck was one of the most individual draughtsmen amongst the artists in the immediate orbit of Rembrandt, and the distinctive combination of energetic, almost frenzied line work alternating with surprisingly delicate treatment of certain details - here the faces - is characteristic of his style. Very comparable in this regard is the stylistically similar drawing depicting
Daniel Proving Susanna's Innocence, in the British Museum, which is signed and dated
1658.
1 Most probably, the present drawing also dates from the 1650s.
1. London, British Museum, inv. no. 1946,0713.158