Object data
reed pen and brown ink, with some areas deliberately rubbed with a wet finger or wet brush; framing line in greyish-brown ink
height 157 mm × width 221 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn
Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet
Amsterdam, c. 1640 - c. 1650
Inscriptions
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inscribed on verso: upper right, in pencil (with the no. of the 1883 De Vos sale), deVos 424; lower left, in blue pencil, 23; lower right, in pencil (with the Hofstede de Groot cat. no.), deGr 1173
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stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228); below that, with the mark of the Vereniging Rembrandt (L. 2135)
Technical notes
Watermark: None
Provenance
...; sale, Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 424, with fifteen other drawings, as school of Rembrandt, fl. 480, to J.H. Balfoort (active 1853-83), Utrecht, for the Vereniging Rembrandt (L. 2135);1 from whom, fl. 5,049, with 166 other drawings, to the museum (L. 2228), 1889
Object number: RP-T-1889-A-2049
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
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
Christ is crouching in the middle of his apostles and washing Peter’s feet above a low round bowl. According to the biblical account (John 13:8-9), when Peter objected to Christ humbling himself in this way, Christ said that if Peter would not let himself be washed, he could have ‘no part’ with him, to which Peter answered: ‘Lord, then not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.’
Peter’s protestation and his lack of understanding of Christ’s superior humanity (expressed by his humility and willingness to do such a servile task) can clearly be seen in his pose: he leans forward in his chair, gripping the arms and craning his neck forward, still somewhat astonished. The other apostles, of whom only three are portrayed, are looking on. Christ was not represented in the usual kneeling position, but in a squatting pose that is more natural than respectable. In his portrayal of the story, Rembrandt limited himself to the figures; the only indication of the setting is at the upper right, a curtain drawn with a single reed pen line. The figures and the expressions on their faces are well characterized, even if not rendered in precise detail. This work shows the extent to which Rembrandt was able to use abstract forms to express emotions in a highly-individualized manner. The dark contours of the leg and back of Christ were added atop an earlier, faintly drawn sketch to clarify and improve the forms. Like the curtain, the standing figure to the right is drawn in very broad lines with a half-empty reed pen: reed nibs typically split from the pressure of the draughtsman’s hand, and this is evident here in the gaps in the middle of some of the ink lines, such as in the figure’s lower legs.
There is an earlier drawing of the Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet, from circa 1628-29, in the British Museum in London (inv. no. 1961,0708.2),2 which shows more apostles. On the extreme left is a seated apostle, looking on, whose pose is similar in every detail to that of Peter in our drawing. Rembrandt must have used this figure of an apostle as a model for the figure of Peter in the later Amsterdam drawing.
A painting by Rembrandt of the subject is mentioned twice in seventeenth-century inventories: once in 1660, in the inventory of Abraham Jacobsz Graeven,3 and then two decades later, in 1680, in the inventory of Harmen Beckers, where it is called a ‘graeutie’, in other words, a grisaille.4 Although a painting of the Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet in The Art Institute of Chicago (inv. no. 1934.385) has been connected with the painting in the first inventory,5 it is not an autograph work and is currently attributed to Jan Lievens (though not accepted as such by Bernard Schnackenburg), datable circa 1630-35. The British Museum drawing probably dates from the same period or earlier.6 When compared to the other works, the Amsterdam drawing is the most monumental and impressive. Though it was previously generally assigned to the 1650s, its vigorous drawing style, full of contrast, makes a dating in the late 1640s more likely in my opinion.
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1173 (c. 1650-60); W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, II (1934), no. 444 (c. 1658); 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. 69 (c. 1656); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 931 (c. 1653); 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. 25, with earlier literature; W.W. Robinson, ‘Review of P. Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt, his Anonymous Pupils and Followers, The Hague 1985’, Kunstchronik 41 (1988), pp. 579-86, pp. 584-85 (c. 1650); M. de Bazelaire and E. Starcky, Rembrandt et son école: Dessins du Musée du Louvre, exh. cat. Paris 1988-89, p. 82, under no. 73; 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. 34; M. Kreutzer, Rembrandt und die Bibel: Radierungen, Zeichnungen, Kommentare, Stuttgart 2003, pp. 144-45; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 108-09, fig. 104; S. Slive, Rembrandt Drawings, Los Angeles 2009, pp. 212-13, fig. 15.21; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, 2 vols., coll. cat. Paris 2010, p. 78, under no. 19.
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet, Amsterdam, c. 1640 - 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.28543
(accessed 10 November 2024 04:44:00).