Object data
pen and brown ink, with opaque white; framing lines in dark brown ink (lower border) and pencil (left, upper and right border)
height 187 mm × width 188 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn
The Angel Appearing to Joseph in his Dream
Amsterdam, c. 1650
Inscriptions
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inscribed on verso: centre, by Hofstede de Groot, in pencil, f ozz.-; below that, in pencil (with the Hofstede de Groot cat. no.), HdG 1269; below that, in pencil, Rembrandt; lower left, in red chalk (with the sheet turned 90°), Rembrandt
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stamped on verso: centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
Watermark: Countermark with letters, CF (?)
Condition
Light foxing throughout1
Provenance
...; purchased from Freiherr Egon von Kap-herr (1877-1935), Starnberger See, with one other drawing, by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, 1900;2 by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930
Object number: RP-T-1930-23
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
When the Wise Men from the East had left Bethlehem, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: ‘Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him’ (Matthew 2:13). They then departed and remained in Egypt until Herod’s death.
The drawing – one of a large group of drawings of biblical scenes made around 1650 – depicts the moment when the angel appears and, with a gesture, urges Joseph in a dream to flee. Joseph’s head is leant back, his eyes closed, his right arm resting on his baggage and the other tucked inside his coat. Next to Joseph’s right knee is his saddle. Mary and Joseph are sleeping against a straw mattress, and Mary cradles the Child under her mantle. None of the animals in the stable, including the donkey they will use to escape, is depicted. The only indication of a stable interior is the wooden post behind which the angel has appeared. Rembrandt drew the angel’s hand twice and covered the first version with opaque white. The drawing is carried out with fine, irregular pen lines and hatching; the faces, including the barely visible face of the Christ Child, are lightly, but convincingly sketched. As in most of the drawings of biblical scenes, the story is portrayed by the figures only, without much indication of a setting.
The subject was only rarely depicted by Rembrandt and his followers.3 What is possibly an unusual drawn version of the subject by Rembrandt, set in a domestic interior, in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (inv. no. PD.42-1961),4 was signalled by Thea Vignau-Wilberg,5 though in that case the messenger was a winged putto rather than an adult angel. There are also a related drawing and painting, both formerly attributed to Rembrandt, in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin (inv. no. KdZ 2698)6 and the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (inv. no. 236),7 which were probably made by a pupil around 1650. The position of the Virgin’s legs in the Budapest painting seems to have been derived from the figure of Joseph in our drawing. Though a remarkable borrowing, it is a typical trick for a pupil. Other motifs from our drawing appear in a sheet considered to be a copy of a work by Ferdinand Bol, in the Museum August Kestner in Hannover (inv. no. 1909.91).8
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1269 (c. 1645); W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, I (1925), no. 333 (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. 61 (1650-52); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 915 (c. 1652); 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. 39; T. Vignau-Wilberg, with P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Followers: Drawings from Munich, exh. cat. Munich (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2001-02, p. 262, under no. 80, fig. 2; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, p. 101, fig. 97; R. Verdi, Rembrandt’s Themes: Life into Art, New Haven/London 2014, p. 54, fig. 45; H. Bevers, with a contribution by G.J. Dietz and A. Penz, Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, coll. cat. Berlin 2018, p. 240, under no. 125.
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, The Angel Appearing to Joseph in his Dream, 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.28557
(accessed 15 November 2024 23:28:19).