A Syndic of the Drapers’ Guild, Jacob van Loon, Seated, Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1661 - c. 1662

A Syndic of the Drapers’ Guild, Jacob van Loon, Seated, Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1661 - c. 1662

pen and brown ink, with brown wash and opaque white, over traces of black chalk, on light brown account-book paper; framing line in brown ink, h 195mm × w 160mm Catalogue entry

This is a study for the oldest of the five syndics, Jacob van Loon, the man on the far left of Rembrandt’s painting The Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild (hanging elsewhere in this gallery). Rembrandt probably first made a series of sketches for the entire composition. After that, he undoubtedly drew individual studies of all the figures, but only two of them have been preserved.

Catalogue entry