Object data
reed pen and brown ink, with brown wash, on paper toned with light brown wash
height 105 mm × width 193 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn (school of)
Road with Trees, Ditches and Houses
Amsterdam, in or after c. 1660
Inscriptions
Technical notes
Watermark: None
Condition
Upper left corner made up
Provenance
...; sale, Comte François Xavier Jean-Marie Joseph de Robiano (1778-1836, Brussels) et al., Amsterdam (F. Muller), 15 (16) June 1926 sqq., no. 439, as Rembrandt, fl. 3,600, to Dr Curt Otto (c. 1880-1929), Leipzig;1 ...; collection Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague (L. 516); his sale, Leipzig (C.G. Boerner), 4 November 1931, no. 184, as Rembrandt, DM 4,600, to the dealer D. Warmer for the museum (L. 2228), with support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
Object number: RP-T-1931-180
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Between two ditches, a road leads into the distance. Small bridges connect the road with the houses on the left and the garden and trees on the right. Standing on two of the bridges is a small figure. The drawing is executed with fine pen lines, with thin passages of wash added in the distance and to accent some of the foreground forms. The reflections of the trees in the water are indicated with even vertical strokes. The leaves and trunks on the right are heavily reinforced with broad strokes of grey.
The draughtsmanship is reminiscent of Rembrandt’s late works, such as his drawing of a View of the Amstelveenseweg outside Amsterdam (inv. no. RP-T-1961-85), with its similar loop-shaped leaves on the trees.
There are at least two other drawings on the same sort of paper, which has been given a light-brown tint. Firstly, there is a drawing of a Landscape with Tall Trees, in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. no. R 86 (PK)),2 which, as Royalton-Kisch noted, was originally a continuation of the right side of the present drawing. When the two halves were cut apart is not known. Secondly, there is a drawing of a View of the Plague House on the Way to Overtoom, formerly on the London art market.3 Aside from the preparation of the paper, the main similarities between the three drawings are the regular, broken pen lines, which have been lightly drawn, and the longer lines indicating the ground. Particularly striking is the regularity with which the leaves are rendered, which can be seen most clearly in the Rotterdam drawing. The alternation of line and tone evident in the autograph View of the Amstelveenseweg is lacking in the three drawings on light-brown toned paper. In The Pesthuis, the rhythm of the lines for the building and the background is so regular, almost mechanical, that an attribution to Rembrandt is impossible. Another unusual feature of the museum’s drawing is the long, thin line indicating the roadside: Rembrandt would have broken up such a line, and he would have never drawn it so straight.
The original Amsterdam/Rotterdam view was probably made in the vicinity of Amsterdam, but the exact location is difficult to determine. The three drawings were probably made by a pupil in Rembrandt’s landscape style of circa 1660. The structure and thickness of the paper could indicate a date in the late seventeenth century.
Peter Schatborn, 2018
Literature
M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de Nederlandsche teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, I: Teekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn school, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1942, no. 80 (as Rembrandt, c. 1664-55); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 1362 (as Rembrandt, 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. Amsterdam 1985, no. 116, with earlier literature; J. Giltaij, The Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, coll. cat. Rotterdam 1988, p. 323, under no. 190
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2018, 'school of Rembrandt van Rijn, Road with Trees, Ditches and Houses, Amsterdam, in or after c. 1660', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28639
(accessed 15 November 2024 02:54:49).