Object data
pen and brown ink, with opaque white; later additions in grey wash; framing line in brown ink
height 219 mm × width 180 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn
Annunciation to the Shepherds
Amsterdam, c. 1650
Inscriptions
-
inscribed on verso: centre, in pencil (with the Hofstede de Groot cat. no.), HdG 1266; lower left, in blue pencil, 22; lower centre, in pencil, no 10
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stamped on verso: centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
Watermark: None
Condition
Light foxing throughout1
Provenance
...; purchased from Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913), London, through the mediation of Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, 1901;2 by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930
Object number: RP-T-1930-20
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
An angel has appeared on a cloud and proclaims the news of Christ’s birth to the shepherds, ‘and they were sore afraid’ (Luke 2:8-11). Whereas the angel has spread his arms to announce the glad tidings, the shepherd below has raised his arms in fright. One of the shepherds in the foreground is kneeling, the other looks up and walks away. A cow is standing up with some difficulty, and sheep are running away.
The scene was depicted with a lively, but controlled handling of line. The movement of the approaching cloud, the angel’s robe slightly billowing in the wind and the sheep running off are all rendered sketchily. In the left foreground, the drawing has been more fully worked out. Rembrandt apparently had some difficulty with the pose of the kneeling shepherd and covered a large part of the figure with white. The outline of the angel’s face and his thumb have also been corrected with opaque white because they were too dark.
The passages of grey wash, as in other drawings by Rembrandt, were added later (see inv. nos. RP-T-1930-63, RP-T-1901-A-4523 and RP-T-1898-A-3689). They do not enhance the modelling of the forms, as can most clearly be seen in the figure of the standing shepherd on the left.
In an etching of 1634, Rembrandt portrayed the Annunciation to the Shepherds as a nocturnal scene (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1962-19).3 The fleeing animals, the cow trying to get up and three shepherds, one kneeling and two standing, are also depicted in that print, but on a smaller scale and in a larger setting. The composition of the drawing, which has been trimmed to an arch at the top, is reminiscent of the paintings in the series of scenes from The Passion now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, which Rembrandt made for Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, especially The Ascension of 1636 (inv. no. 398).4
The drawing was once generally dated to the 1650s, but the rather lively and varied treatment of line, as well as the strong hatching, indicate a somewhat earlier dating of about 1650. Another drawing by Rembrandt in the museum’s collection, with a calmer version of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, is dated circa 1655 (inv. no. RP-T-1930-21).
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1266; W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, I (1925), no. 290 (c. 1650); 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. 66 (1654-55); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 999 (c. 1655-56); 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. 38; M. de Bazelaire and E. Starcky, Rembrandt et son école: Dessins du Musée du Louvre, exh. cat. Paris 1988-89, p. 82, under no. 74; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 98 and 100, fig. 95
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, Annunciation to the Shepherds, Amsterdam, c. 1650', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28556
(accessed 27 December 2024 13:12:58).