- Museum number
- 1946,0713.978
- Description
-
Imaginary mountain landscape, after Rembrandt; cattle and figures in the meadows in the foreground, a mountain behind, with square top pierced by an arch, a group of buildings, one with a round, conical tower, to right, a boat on a lake at centre. c.1663
Pen and brown ink with grey and brown wash over graphite; framing lines in pen and brown ink.
Verso: see Inscriptions.
Watermark: Strasburg lily in crowned shield, the letters 'WR' below.
- Production date
- 1663 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 240 millimetres
-
Width: 372 millimetres (chain lines horizontal, 25mm apart)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Entry from Martin Royalton-Kisch, 'Catalogue of drawings by Rembrandt and his school', 2010, Lambert Doomer, cat.no.14:
Based on a drawing in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt, which is inscribed 'Rembrandt f 1642'. The attribution of the Frankfurt drawing is contested, but in style it resembles Rembrandt's black chalk landscapes of the 1640s (including 1890,0512.160 and 161; here Rembrandt cat. nos. 62 and 63).[1] Its paper support has a watermark identical to that found in Rembrandt's own study, now in the Rijksmuseum, for the sick woman in Rembrandt's Hundred Guilder Print, also of the 1640s.[2] The compiler takes the minority (or currently unique!) view that the Frankfurt drawing is by Rembrandt.
The present sheet bears the same watermark as 1946,0713.152 and 153 [here Doomer cat. nos.10 and 11], and all three were sold in a single lot at the Lawrence-Woodburn sale of 1860. It seems likely that the present sheet, like them, also dates from around 1663, two decades later than the Frankfurt drawing. Doomer's surviving copies after drawings by or attributed to Rembrandt all appear to have been made long after he was established as an independent master.[3]
NOTES:
[1] The Frankfurt drawing, Inv. no.3085 (N.17), measures 154 x 277, and was formerly in the J. Goll van Franckenstein collection. Sumowski (see Lit. below, with further literature) describes it as a Rembrandt imitation, and states that it is based on the drawing by Doomer.
[2] Benesch 183; Amsterdam, 1985, no.21, repr. (the watermark, there repr. p.241, includes the same monogram, CH with the letter M, which is usually attached to a Basel staff watermark).
[3] Schatborn, 1977, pp.48-50.
LITERATURE :
Popham, 1935, p.183, no.335; Schulz, 1972, II, no.386; Sumowski, 1979, etc., II, no.481x, repr. (model for the drawing in Frankfurt, which is a Rembrandt imitation).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
No exhibitions recorded.
- Condition
- rather grubby; some foxing; frayed at left edge; repaired tears left and at upper right edge.
- Acquisition date
- 1946
- Acquisition notes
- In Woodburn sale with two others, here cat. nos.10 and 11 (1946,0713.152 and 153), bought by Sir Thomas Phillips, £2-10s; by descent to Thomas Fitzroy Phillips Fenwick and presented anonymously with the Phillipps-Fenwick collection.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1946,0713.978