Object data
pen and brown ink, with brown wash
height 182 mm × width 153 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn
Seated Actor in the Role of Capitano / verso: Actor in the Role of Pantalone Engaged in Conservation
Amsterdam, c. 1634 - c. 1636
Inscriptions
-
none
Technical notes
Watermark: None
Provenance
...; purchased from the dealer R. Dunthorne, London, by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, 1909;1 his sale, Leipzig (C.G. Boerner), 4 November 1931, no. 168 (‘Ein Schauspielerkönig auf seinem Thron, ein Mann mit einem Beutel kniet vor ihm. Rückseitig ein stehender Schauspieler, eine Geste machend, nach rechts zu einem Manne gewandt, von dem nur Oberkörper gezeichnet ist.’), 6,600 DM, to the dealer P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London;2 ...; collection Isaac de Bruijn (1872-1953) and his wife, Johanna Geertruida de Bruijn-van der Leeuw (1877-1960), Spiez and Muri, near Bern, by 1932;3 by whom donated to the museum, 1949, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum, 1960
Object number: RP-T-1961-76(R)
Credit line: De Bruijn-van der Leeuw Bequest, Muri, Switzerland
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 actor wearing a plumed hat is sitting in a chair with his legs wide apart, one hand on his hip, the other holding a stick. He has draped his long coat over the back of the chair. He looks at a figure who is showing him a bag. His dress and pose suggest the role of Capitano, a character who occurs not only in the Commedia dell’arte, but also in Bredero’s play of 1617, De Spaansen Brabander Jerolimo.4
The presence of the bag may provide a clue to the identity of the scene depicted. The Dutch word for ‘bag’ (‘tas’ or ‘tasch’) was also used for a woman of loose morals, so perhaps the figure with the open bag is a procuress who has propositioned Capitano.5 If this supposition is correct, the expression on Capitano’s face, drawn from the side, can certainly be interpreted as a look of satisfaction as he contemplates the offer. The curtains behind him were part of the minimal decor used for performances at a street fair or market. The procuress has just come out on stage from behind the curtain. The chair in which the main character is seated is of equally simple construction – also what one would expect at this sort of open-air performance.
On the verso of the drawing are further characters from the Commedia dell’arte (fig. a, inv. no. RP-T-1961-76(V)). The man with the pointed nose and sly smile is recognizable as Pantalone, not only by his facial expression, but also by the baton hanging at his side. The figures on the recto and verso were presumably acting in the same play.
Although parts of the drawings on both sides seem to have been made quickly, the facial expressions, the poses and the shadows have all been done with great care. The folds in the coat draped over the chair have been clarified with very broad pen lines. The style of the drawing, with its many fine and lightly sketched hatchings, suggests a date in the mid-1630s.
The relationship between stage performances and representations in the visual arts has often been emphasized, so it almost goes without saying that Rembrandt had a special interest in actors, whom he often sketched.6 Some drawings show a Pantalone-like figure standing as a quack doctor before his public, such as one in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin (inv. no. KdZ 5268);7 Rembrandt also made individual studies of Pantalone, which are equally masterly, such as works in the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg (inv. no. 22417)8 and the Groninger Museum in Groningen (inv. no. 1931.0187).9 Among Rembrandt’s documented theatrical drawings are sketches made slightly later, during a rehearsal of Joost van den Vondel’s Gijsbrecht van Amstel, a play that had its premiere on 3 January 1638, in Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Schouwburg. This starred the well-known actor Willem Bartholsz Ruyter, who is portrayed in two other Amsterdam drawings: as a biblical figure in Ahasuerus on his Throne (inv. no. RP-T-1930-38) and as a countryman in a bust-length portrait of him (inv. no. RP-T-1996-6).
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, II (1934), no. 753 (c. 1635); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 293 (1635); P. Schatborn, Dutch Figure Drawings of the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 1981-82, no. 81; 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. 8, with earlier literature; S. Alpers, Rembrandt’s Enterprise: The Studio and the Market, Chicago 1988, pp. 48-49, fig. 2.2 (verso); 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. 12; D. Rosand, Drawing Acts: Studies in Graphic Expression and Representation, Cambridge/New York 2002, pp. 235-36, fig. 222; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 61-62, figs. 54-55; A. Stefes, Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle Kupferstichkabinett, III: Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1850, 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011, p. 455, under no. 846; M. Royalton-Kisch, The Drawings of Rembrandt: A Revision of Otto Benesch’s Catalogue Raisonné (online), no. 0293, with further literature; P. Schatborn, E. Starcky and P. Curie (eds.), Rembrandt intime, exh. cat. Paris (Musée Jacquemart-André) 2016-17, p. 135, no. 34
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, Seated Actor in the Role of Capitano / verso: Actor in the Role of Pantalone Engaged in Conservation, Amsterdam, c. 1634 - c. 1636', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28127
(accessed 13 November 2024 05:00:12).