Govert Flinck

Flinck was one of the most accomplished draughtsmen of all Rembrandt's pupils, and also had a highly successful career, cut short by his sudden death at the age of only 45. Flinck studied with Rembrandt for one year, probably in 1635-36, shortly after Rembrandt had set himself up as an independent master in Amsterdam. Arnold Houbraken, the chronicler of artist’s lives, tells us that the pupil absorbed his master’s manner so successfully that some of his pictures were mistaken for authentic Rembrandts and sold as such, but that after leaving Rembrandt’s studio, he deliberately sought to change his style. By about 1642, Flinck had largely abandoned Rembrandt’s manner and adopted a more elegant style that took its inspiration from Flemish Baroque models. 

Most of Flinck’s drawings date from after his time with Rembrandt. During the 1640s, he adopted, together with others such as Jacob Backer and Jacob van Loo, the practice of drawing from nude and clothed models in black and white chalks, and sometimes, as here, oiled charcoal, on blue paper.¹ This gave rise to some of Flinck’s most accomplished and attractive sheets. Many of these drawings were preparatory for paintings, but in the present case, no related painting has been identified.  

We are grateful to Dr. Tom van der Molen of the Amsterdam Museum for kindly confirming the attribution, and for pointing out the stylistic parallels with a signed study of a Seated Young man leaning to the left, in Haarlem.²  

1. See Rembrandt’s Naked Truth. Drawing Nude Models in the Golden Age, cat., Amsterdam, Museum het Rembrandthuis, pp. 130-37; and Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck, exh. cat., Amsterdam, The Rembrandt House Museum and the Amsterdam Museum, 2017-18, pp. 196-99

2. Haarlem, Teylers Museum, inv. P 007