Object data
pen and brown ink; framing line in brown ink
height 194 mm × width 273 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn
Tobias and the Angel Taking Leave of Raguel
Amsterdam, c. 1650 - c. 1655
Inscriptions
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inscribed on verso: lower left, in blue pencil, 20; above that, in pencil, 42; lower centre, with the mark of K. von Liphart, in black ink, KEvLiphart (L. 1687); next to that, in pencil, 5.+.5 – 9 (?); lower centre, in pencil, G. v. d. Eechout.; lower right, in pencil, 10 trd ‘or / batt (?); next to that, in pencil (with the Hofstede de Groot cat. no.), 1263; below that, in pencil, H. 62
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stamped on verso: upper right (effaced), with the mark of R. von Liphart (L. 1758); lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
Watermark: Strasbourg lily surmounted by a crown
Condition
Light foxing throughout1
Provenance
...; collection Freiherr Karl Eduard von Liphart (1808-91), Tartu, Bonn and Florence (L. 1687); by descent to Freiherr Reinhold von Liphart (1864-1940), Rathshof, near Tartu (L. 1758); sale, Freiherr Karl Eduard von Liphart (1808-91, Tartu, Bonn and Florence), Leipzig (C.G. Boerner), 26 April 1898 sqq., no. 300, as Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (‘Der junge Tobias verlässt seinen Vater. Prachtvolle geistreiche Federzeichnung’), 210 DM, to Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague;2 by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930
Object number: RP-T-1930-18
Credit line: Gift of C. Hofstede de Groot, 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
At the bottom of a flight of stairs near a door, Raguel and the young Tobias are taking leave of each other (Tobit 10:9-12). Raguel’s wife, Edna, and their daughter Sara, Tobias’s wife, who will return home with her husband, are both standing on a raised step. At the left, the Archangel Raphael has opened the door and the small dog in the background is waiting for the moment of departure.
Rembrandt drew the figures with varied, sometimes partially dry pen lines, using a few strong accents. Shaded areas were rendered with very fine hatching. The faces, hands and clothing of the figures are well characterized without being precisely worked out, except for the single, more fully realized detail of Raguel’s hand on Tobias’s shoulder. The balanced relationship between a sketchy, but accurate style and the areas that have been left blank lends the forms a powerful, suggestive quality. This can be most clearly seen in the faces, especially Raguel’s: his closed eyes, drawn with a few strokes, and the simple line for his mouth perfectly express the heartfelt affection with which he kisses his son-in-law; his embrace is much more than a gesture. Sara is standing and waiting, ready to set out on the journey to her husband’s home and parents. She is veiled, and a small bundle hangs from her belt. Although Edna is not weeping, she does appear sad to see Sara and Tobias leaving. But the expression that Rembrandt gave her is one of resignation rather than great sorrow. The angel is waiting until the last farewells have been said. His pose suggests that he is about to make a move. Exceptionally, Rembrandt drew him without wings. One might almost think that the composition did not leave Rembrandt enough space, but he could also have come upon the idea of a wingless angel from a series of woodcuts depicting scenes from the Book of Tobit after Maarten van Heemskerck, probably by Dirck Volkertsz Coornhert,3 in which the angel is portrayed without wings – except, of course, when he flies off at the end of the story, after he has revealed himself to be an angel. Rembrandt used this last print from the series (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-7874) as a model for the painting of the Departure of the Angel, signed and dated 1637, in the Louvre in Paris (inv. no. 1736).4
There used to be some disagreement over the identification of the subject of the scene. It was first thought to represent the departure of Tobias and the angel from the house of his parents, Tobit and Anna, but in that case the presence of the young woman was inexplicable. It was then considered to be a depiction of the arrival of the angel and Tobias at Raguel’s house. However, the pose of the angel by the door and the fact that Sara seems to have prepared herself for a journey suggest that we are dealing with a departure.5
Rembrandt and his pupils often depicted scenes from the Book of Tobit in paintings, prints and drawings (see inv. nos. RP-T-1889-A-2055 and RP-T-1889-A-2054). However, the number of drawings of scenes from this story by Rembrandt himself is probably smaller than is generally accepted.6 The Amsterdam drawing is the only one that shows the departure from Raguel and Edna, and the manner in which Rembrandt expressed the human emotions involved make it one of the most moving. This drawing is part of a large group of biblical scenes, all of which are stylistically related to one another and can be dated to the early 1650s.
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1263; W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, I (1925), no. 227 (c. 1652); 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. 62 (c. 1652); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 871 (c. 1651); 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. 41, with earlier literature; C. Tümpel and P. Schatborn, Het boek Tobias: Met etsen en tekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn leerlingen, Zeist 1987, pp. 36-37, repr.; C.S. Ackley et al., Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher, exh. cat. Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago) 2003-04, no. 131; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 102-03, fig. 100; R. Verdi, Rembrandt’s Themes: Life into Art, New Haven/London 2014, pp. 146-47, fig. 128
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, Tobias and the Angel Taking Leave of Raguel, Amsterdam, c. 1650 - c. 1655', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28559
(accessed 15 November 2024 23:28:32).