Rembrandt School, circa 1640–1650

The Descent from the Cross (recto); Study of a Male Torso (verso)

Pen and brown ink, brown ink framing lines, 138 x 129 mm (5.4 x 5.1 inch)

Inscribed ‘Anth Van Dyk’ (pen and brown ink, verso) and ‘G.N’. (pencil, verso)

Provenance
~ Unidentified collector’s mark HF (?), blind stamp, apparently not in Lugt (lower left)
~ Private collection, The Netherlands

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This powerful study sheet immediately recalls the drawings of Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669), the most influential artistic personality of the Dutch Golden Age. As is well known, Rembrandt’s studio attracted a host of students, pupils and collaborators, who paid annual tuition fees to the master. Drawing was enormously important to Rembrandt, whose creative thought processes can often be followed by studying his surviving drawings. Rembrandt impressed the importance of drawing upon his students, who strived to emulate the master’s drawing style as closely as possible.

Because of the number of students, the rarity of signed sheets and the dependence on Rembrandt’s own technique, it is sometimes difficult to securely attribute drawings produced in Rembrandt’s orbit – as is also the case here. Stylistically, the drawing can be dated to c.1640-1650. Although it has been executed with considerable vigour and confidence, indicating a strong artistic personality, the identity of the artist has so far remained elusive. Students in Rembrandt’s studio in this period included for instance Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680) and Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621–1674). Some of the latter’s drawings are executed in a similar technique with prominent and swiftly applied zig-zag lines, such as Nathan Admonishing David in the Louvre (fig.).¹ Van den Eeckhout treated the theme of the Descent from the Cross in a drawing preserved in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (fig.).²

The quick study of a male torso on the verso and the careless splash of ink indicate the drawing was kept in the artist’s studio and used as part of working processes, rather than for sale, as was standard practise with Rembrandt and his entourage, who were active draughtsmen.

Rembrandt himself explored the highly emotionally charged theme of the Descent from the Cross in various works during the course of his career, both in paintings, drawings and etchings. The author of the present drawing would certainly have been influenced by Rembrandt’s etching of the same subject of 1633, which shows a particularly contorted body of Christ (fig.).³

1. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, 190 x 229 mm, inv. no. 22.968; Werner Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, New York 1980, vol. III, pp. 1658-59, no. 769x.
2. Pen and brown ink, 164 x 119 mm, inv. no. D 2841.
3. Etching, 530 x 410 mm, Hollstein 81. An impression is preserved in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. RP-P-OB-621.