Object data
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
height 195 mm × width 160 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn
Study of the Syndic of the Drapers’ Guild Jacob van Loon, Seated
Amsterdam, c. 1661 - c. 1662
Inscriptions
-
inscribed on verso, in pencil: centre, R g; below that, 15/2 1896 (?)
-
stamped on verso: centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
Watermark: None visible through lining
Condition
Laid down; fold, in the middle of the sheet (vertical); brown stains, centre
Provenance
...; collection Hermann Behmer (1831-1915), Weimar;1 ...; donated by Hermanus Philippus Gerritsen (1850-1917), The Hague, to the museum (L. 2228), 1896
Object number: RP-T-1896-A-3172
Credit line: Gift of H.P. Gerritsen, The Hague
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (Leiden 1606 - Amsterdam 1669)
After attending Latin school in his native Leiden, Rembrandt, the son of a miller, enrolled at Leiden University in 1620, but soon abandoned his studies to become an artist. He first trained (1621-23) under the Leiden painter Jacob Isaacsz van Swanenburg (c. 1571-1638), followed by six months with the Amsterdam history painter Pieter Lastman (c. 1583-1633). Returning to Leiden around 1624, he shared a studio with Jan Lievens, where he aimed to establish himself as a history painter, winning the admiration of the poet and courtier Constantijn Huygens. In 1628 Gerard Dou (1613-75) became his first pupil. In the autumn of 1631 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, where his career rapidly took off. Three years later he joined the Guild of St Luke and married Saskia Uylenburgh (1612-42), niece of the art dealer Hendrik Uylenburgh (c. 1587-1661), in whose house he had been living and working. She died shortly after giving birth to their son Titus, by which time Rembrandt was already in financial straits owing to excessive spending on paintings, prints, antiquities and studio props for his history pieces. After Saskia’s death, Rembrandt lived first with Titus's wet nurse, Geertje Dircx (who eventually sued Rembrandt for breach of promise and was later imprisoned for her increasingly unstable behaviour), and then with his later housekeeper, Hendrickje Stoffels (by whom he had a daughter, Cornelia). Mounting debts made him unable to meet the payments of his house on the Jodenbreestraat and forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1656 and to sell his house and art collection. In the last decade of his life, he, Hendrickje and Titus resided in more modest accommodation on the Rozengracht, but Rembrandt continued to be dogged by continuing financial difficulties. His beloved Titus died in 1668. Rembrandt survived him by only a year and was buried in the Westerkerk.
Entry
Just as the museum’s Night Watch (inv. no. SK-C-5) constitutes the highpoint of Dutch paintings of militia companies, our painting of the Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild, known as The Syndics, of 1662 (inv. no. SK-C-6)2 – Rembrandt’s only corporate group portrait – is the masterpiece of Dutch portraits of regents. Three preparatory drawings for this painting have been preserved. Two are of individual syndics who appear on the left of the painting, the present study of Jacob van Loon seated and one representing Volkert Jansz standing, in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (inv. no. R 133 (PK)).3 The third study is a figure group in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin (inv. no. KdZ 5270),4 which shows the same two figures plus the man to their right. In that drawing (which at some point was given an arched format), there are traces of the brim of a hat at the far right, indicating that the sheet was once larger.
When Rembrandt made the two drawings of the individual figures, the composition of the whole scene was already advanced in planning. He left an open space for Van Loon’s chair in the lower left corner of the Rotterdam study of Volkert Jansz. Although Jansz is standing up straight in the drawing, he is depicted bending over slightly in the final painting. Rembrandt made this change while working on the canvas, possibly to add an element of movement to the composition – as if Jansz is about to stand up or sit down, having acknowledged the arrival of the spectator.5 A projection in the rear wall was sketched in with the brush next to Volkert Jansz, a detail moved further to the right in the painting. The treatment of the background is different again in the Berlin drawing.
The role that these drawings played in the creation of the painting is not entirely clear. Rembrandt did not usually make direct preparatory studies for paintings. Those drawings that are related to paintings were generally made when he was considering changes to his compositions, as in Three Scribes (inv. no. RP-T-1930-54(V)).6 The Berlin drawing of the three syndics had already been executed before the change occurred to Volkert Jansz’s pose. The figure of the messenger in the painting, Frans Hendriksz Bel, was not at first depicted in the Berlin drawing. As is known from X-rays, originally he was placed on the extreme right of the painting, and then a quick sketch of his head was added to the Berlin drawing in the same position that he would occupy in the final version of the painting.7 It is possible that Van Loon and Jansz first posed for the drawn sketches – which are essentially explorations of their poses rather than their facial features – and then again later for their portraits in the painting. The other figures might have done the same, but no drawings of them are known to have survived. In the painting, Van Loon wears a stiff collar and is seated on a chair that Rembrandt often depicted (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-1930-10), but in the drawing he is sitting on a simpler type of chair.
The drawings of Van Loon and Jansz were made on paper from an account book, a fact confirmed by the present sheet’s visible verso. Rembrandt also used this type of paper for one of his nudes (inv. no. RP-T-00-227), which moreover was drawn in the same shade of brown ink.
The lavish wash lends the present drawing a painterly quality. The face and hands were drawn with a few pen lines. The clothing is sketchier, in terms of both the pen lines and the washed areas of shadow. The corrections in white were originally stronger, but they still give the scene a luminous quality. The drawings for The Syndics are generally dated 1661-62.
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1180; W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, II (1934), no. 745; M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de Nederlandsche teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, I: Teekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn school, coll. cat. The Hague 1942, no. 44; O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 1179; P. Schatborn, Dutch Figure Drawings of the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 1981-82, no. 86; P. Schatborn, Catalogus van de Nederlandse tekeningen in het Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, IV: Tekeningen van Rembrandt, zijn onbekende leerlingen en navolgers/Drawings by Rembrandt, his Anonymous Pupils and Followers, coll. cat. The Hague 1985, no. 56, with earlier literature; C. Tümpel, with A. Tümpel, Rembrandt: Mythos und Methode, Antwerp/Königstein im Taunus 1986, no. 256; J. Giltaij, The Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, coll. cat. Rotterdam 1988, pp. 107-08, under no. 36, fig. c; M. Royalton-Kisch, ‘Rembrandt’s Sketches for his Paintings’, Master Drawings 27 (1989), no. 2, pp. 142-44 from pp. 128-45; M. Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and his Circle in the British Museum, exh. cat. London 1992, p. 135, under no. 59, p. 154, under no. 68; P. Schatborn, ‘Rembrandt: From Life and from Memory’, in G. Cavalli-Björkman (ed.), Rembrandt and his Pupils: Papers Given at a Symposium in Nationalmuseum Stockholm 2-3 October 1992, Stockholm 1993, p. 157 from pp. 156-72; H. Bevers, P. Schatborn and B. Welzel, Rembrandt, the Master and his Workshop: Drawings and Etchings, exh. cat. Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) and elsewhere 1991-92, no. 40; C. Brown, J. Kelch and P. van Thiel, Rembrandt, the Master and his Workshop: Paintings, exh. cat. Berlin (Altes Museum) and elsewhere 1991-92, p. 282, under no. 48, fig. 48c; E. Starcky, Rembrandt: Les Figures, Paris 1999, p. 104; K.A. Schröder and M. Bisanz-Prakken (eds.), Rembrandt, exh. cat. Vienna (Graphische Sammlung Albertina) 2004, no. 88; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 82-84, fig. 80; S. Slive, Rembrandt Drawings, Los Angeles 2009, pp. 24-25, fig. 3.3; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, 2 vols., coll. cat. Paris 2010, p. 100, under no. 300; M. Royalton-Kisch and P. Schatborn, ‘The Core Group of Rembrandt Drawings, II: The List’, Master Drawings 49 (2011), no. 3, pp. 323-46, no. 74; J. Bikker et al. Late Rembrandt, exh. cat. London (The National Gallery)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum), 2014-15, pp. 128-131, 311, no. 55.
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, Study of the Syndic of the Drapers’ Guild Jacob van Loon, Seated, Amsterdam, c. 1661 - c. 1662', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28575
(accessed 5 October 2024 10:28:54).