Gerbrand van den Eeckhout

Jean-Charles-Marie Jourdeuil (L.528);
Marcus Kappel, Berlin;
Wilhelm R. Valentiner, his sale, Amsterdam, Mensing, October 25, 1932, lot IV (as Rembrandt);
Eldridge R. Johnson, Moorestown, New Jersey

W. von Bode, Die Sammlung M. Kappel, Berlin 1914, p. 21, reproduced (as Rembrandt);
W. R. Valentiner, Rembrandt, Des Meisters Handzeichnungen, Klassiker der Kunst XXXI, Stuttgart/Berlin/Leipzig 1925, no. 208 (as Rembrandt);
H. Kauffmann, 'Zur kritikder Rembrandtzeichnungen,' Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XLVII, 1926, p. 174, n. 3 (as Rembrandt, c. 1633-34);
H. Hell, 'Die späten Handzeichnungen Rembrandts,' Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, LI, 1930, p. 21 (as Rembrandt);
F. Lugt, Musée du Louvre. Inventaire général des dessins des écoles du nord. I Ecole hollandaise, Paris 1933, p. 44, under no 1242 (as Bol or Flinck);
O. Benesch, Rembrandt, werk und Forschung, Vienna 1935, p. 15 (as Rembrandt);
Idem, The Drawings of Rembrandt, 6 vols., London 1954-7, vol. I, no. 74, reproduced (as Rembrandt), and second edition, enlarged and edited by Eva Benesch, London and New York, 1973;
W. Sumowski, 'Bemerkungen zu otto Benesch's Corpus der Rembrandt-Zeichnungen. I,' Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humbolt-Universität zu Berlin. Gesellschafts- und sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe, VII, 1957-8, p. 259 (as Flinck);
W. Wegner, Katalog der staatlichen graphischen Sammlung, Münich. Band I: die Niederländischen Handzeichnungen des 15 - 18 Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1973, p. 79, under 548, (as probably by Eeckhout);
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. 3, New York, 1980, p. 1738, no. 808^xx (as Attributed to Eeckhout), reproduced;
P. Schatborn, 'Tekeningen van Rembrandts leerlingen,' Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, 33, no. 2, 1985, p. 97, reproduced fig. 5 (as Eeckhout);
H.Bevers, Rembrandt. Die Zeichnungen im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin 2006, p. 88, under cat. no. 20 (as Eeckhout)

Laid down. Paper rather browned. Iron-gall ink has eaten into paper slightly in one or two places. Otherwise drawing itself very good and strong. Framed.
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Like so many drawings of the Rembrandt school, this splendid sheet has been attributed over the years to more than one of the master's pupils, but current scholarly opinion seems unanimous in giving it to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.  Eeckhout was a pupil of Rembrandt between 1635 and 1640, and his early drawings often approach the master's works of the same period more closely than do those of any other Rembrandt pupil, not only in terms of style but also as regards their quality.  Indeed, the immense early ability that is apparent in Eeckhout's drawings sometimes makes it very hard to distinguish them from those of Rembrandt himself.

The second half of the 1630s was a period of great experimentation for Rembrandt, during which he made some of his most dramatic and original paintings and drawings.  On a technical level too, this was an adventurous period, and for a couple of years around 1638-39 Rembrandt experimented with the use of iron-gall ink, broadly applied with pen or brush.  The bravura effects of his drawings in that medium and style, such as for example the Two studies of a Bird of Paradise, in the Louvre,¹ or The Artist drawing from a Model, in the British Museum,² are echoed in the right hand side of the present sheet, where we see Eeckhout using this highly expressive technique as a counterpoint to the more conventional handling of the rest of the composition. As Peter Schatborn noted, this approach is also found in other drawings that can be attributed to Eeckhout, such as the Christ bound between two Soldiers and a High Priest, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,³ and there are also clear parallels with another drawing that Sumowski convincingly attributes to Eeckhout, the Thetis and Achilles, in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York,⁴ as well as with the Munich Elisha Refuses Naaman's Gifts.⁵

The subject of the drawing remains somewhat unclear, although the most likely of the various possibilities that have been proposed remains Daniel Interpreting the Dreams of Nebuchadnezzar (other suggestions have included Joseph Interpreting Pharoah's Dream, or an actual theatrical production on a similar theme).  Sumowski, however, interprets the group to the right as a figure led into the scene by soldiers, and therefore describes this simply as an unidentified historical scene.  What does seem clear is that the scene is a biblical one, incorporating figures of an exotic turbaned ruler and a high-hatted high priest which are very familiar types from Rembrandt's works of the mid-to-late 1630s.  Benesch⁶ in fact thought the figure of the high priest was based on a sketch of a similar head on the back of a drawing of a Woman Reading, in Berlin, but although Bevers believes the drawings to be roughly similar in date, he retains the attribution to Rembrandt of the Berlin sheet, and believes the similarity between the two heads is more general.⁷  

This is an exceptional example of the work of one of Rembrandt's most gifted pupils, at the height of his powers, which illustrates beautifully how great was the influence of the master, and what a fine teacher he must have been.

1. H. Bevers, P. Schatborn and B. Welzel, Rembrandt: the Master & his Workshop, exh. cat., Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, and Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1991-92, cat. no. 15

2. M. Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and his Circle in the British Museum, exh. cat., London, British Museum, 1992, cat. no. 27

3. Schatborn, op. cit., 1985, reproduced p. 96, fig. 4

4. Sumowski, op. cit., no. 809^xx

5. Sumowski, op. cit., no. 817^xx, the comparison noted by Bevers, loc. cit.

6. Loc. cit., 1954

7. Idem, no. 203; Bevers, loc. cit.