Seated Woman in a Lascivious Pose

Entry

Based on the monogram ‘W.S.’, this drawing was previously catalogued as by Willem Schellinks (1623-1678). However, that monogram (in a different medium) in all likelihood was added by another hand. Schellinks is not known to have worked in red chalk, nor treated subject-matter such as a sleeping girl exposing her breasts.

What remained unnoticed until recently is the fact that the figure corresponds, in reverse, to one in the painting by Jan Baptist Weenix. Sleeping Tambouret Player with a Dog, dated 1656, in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. no. 869).¹ The figure in the picture is dressed in the same manner, with open bodice, her head fallen back and with one arm resting on a block of stone. The drawing differs in a few details: the girl’s legs are crossed, her right arm is bent and her hair is partly covered by a scarf. Given these differences, the drawing is unlikely to be a copy after the painting. Instead, it should be considered as a preliminary study for the painted figure. As Schatborn observed, Weenix’s rare figure studies served as a stock of motifs for development in painted figures.² Another figure study accepted as by Weenix, the museum’s inv. no. RP-T-1899-A-4239, features similar swift and flowing contours, combined with short, energetically applied accents. In both drawings, soft, broad hatching is paired with light, thin lines. Moreover, red chalk was a favourite medium with Jan Baptist Weenix. The present proposed reattribution was accepted by Anke van Wagenberg-ter Hoeven,³ with only the question remaining who – and for what reason – added the monogram ‘W.S.’

The figure in Weenix’s painting – or even the present drawing – might have been known to Jan Steen (c. 1625/26-1679). His figure of Lea in his painting Jacob Confronting Laban (c. 1669) in the Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, CA (inv. no. F.1969.10.1.P.),⁴ largely echoes the present figure in reverse. Such borrowing would be in line with Steen’s regular habit of basing his figures on the inventions of colleagues.⁵

Annemarie Stefes, 2018