- Museum number
- 1946,0713.154
- Description
-
The angel appearing to Manoah and his wife; the angel seated at left with left hand extended, Manoah kneeling at right, wearing a turban, wife kneeling behind him. c.1652
Black chalk; framing line in pen and dark brown ink
Verso: see Inscriptions
No watermark
- Production date
- 1652 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 302 millimetres
-
Width: 408 millimetres (chain lines horizontal, 31/32mm apart)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Entry from Martin Royalton-Kisch, 'Catalogue of drawings by Rembrandt and his school', 2010, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, cat. no.5:
The subject of the angel appearing to Manoah and his wife, foretelling the birth of their son, Samson, who would liberate Israel from the Philistines, is from the Old Testament (Judges XIII, 11). The story was commonly treated in Rembrandt's circle.
No directly related work by van den Eeckhout is known, but there are two comparable studies, though in red rather than black chalk, of 'Jacob's Dream' (now in the Staatliches Museum in Schwerin and the Albertina in Vienna), which are related to a painting of 1672 now in the Bader collection in Milwaukee.[1] The drawings are usually dated earlier than the painting, to the first years of the 1650s, the period to which the present sheet may also belong.[2]
NOTES:
[1] Respectively inv. nos.4486 and 9549, Sumowski 618-9. For the painting, see Sumowski, 'Gemälde', II, 1983, no.481, repr.. It was until 1982 thought to date from 1652 (see Robinson, 1982, p.285).
[2] As suggested by Sumowski (see Lit. below).
LITERATURE :
Popham, 1935, p.185, no.1, repr. pl.LXXVII (Rembrandtesque; the subject the 'Angel appearing to Isaac and Sarah'; 'important if unattractive' work by Eeckhout); Sumowski, 1962, p.19 (1650s; identifies subject); von Moltke, 1965, p.265, under no.189 (compares drawing of 'Seated Oriental' in Hamburg, inv.21944 [Sumowski 612]); Sumowski, 1979 etc., III, 1980, no.621, repr. (dates c.1652, comparing 'Jacob's Dream', in Schwerin, inv.4486 [Sumowski 618] and 'Pastoral Scene' in Veste Coburg, inv.Z2582 [Sumowski 620]); Budapest, 2005, p.87, under no.69 (compares kneeling figure of Naaman in 'Elisha refusing Naaman's Gifts', in Budapest, Sumowski 717).
EARLIER IDENTIFICATION:
Subject formerly identified as Isaac and Sarah.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
London, 1956, p.33, no.2;
1992, BM, Drawings by Rembrandt and his Circle, not in catalogue
- Condition
- Somewhat dirty at edges; a brownish-grey stain below the angel; otherwise good.
- Acquisition date
- 1946
- Acquisition notes
- Samuel Woodburn: his 'Lawrence' sale, Christie's, 2nd day, 5 June, 1860, lot 378 (with no.3, 1946,0713.155), bought Sir T. Phillipps, 6s; Sir Thomas Phillipps; Thomas Fitzroy Phillipps Fenwick.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1946,0713.154