Standing Shepherdess

Entry

When Ferdinand Bol entered Rembrandt’s studio in 1636, he would have encountered several works by his master featuring pastoral themes. Rembrandt was particularly drawn to this genre between the mid-1630s and the mid-1640s.² He portrayed his wife Saskia in pastoral garb as Flora several times, for instance in a 1634 painting in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (inv. no. 732)³ and one from 1635 in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. NG4930),⁴ which Bol copied in a drawing of circa 1636 (see under inv. no. RP-T-1975-85). Rembrandt’s interest in the pastoral also extended to the print medium, as is best illustrated by his etching of the Flute Player of 1642 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1961-1096).⁵

The present drawing by Bol of a shepherdess, depicted with the traditional shepherd’s attributes, a drinking bottle and bag, corresponds stylistically and iconographically to this body of Rembrandt’s pastoral works. The low-cut dress, large hat with flowers, and crook are typical elements of the pastoral pictorial tradition, and also appear in this form in Rembrandt’s work. The dress, earrings, and plumed cap feature in the painting of Flora in the National Gallery, the crook in the painting in the Hermitage, and the large cap in Rembrandt’s etching The Flute Player. The drawing, in fact, fits so comfortably within Rembrandt’s idiom that it was attributed to the master for a long time. It was not until Keyes published the drawing as by Bol in 1977, and Sumowski provided ample arguments for this attribution in 1979, that the work was transferred to Bol’s oeuvre.

Characteristic for Bol’s hand are the eyes consisting of a little stroke and a circle, and the swift, almost calligraphic delineation. A convincing stylistic comparison can be made between this shepherdess and Bol’s drawing of Hagar and the Angel from circa 1640, also in the Rijksprentenkabinet (inv. no. RP-T-1930-27). Sumowski specifically pointed out the close similarities between the feet of the angel in that work and those of our shepherdess. The present drawing can be dated to around the same time or a little earlier, to the late 1630s, when Bol was looking at Rembrandt’s pastoral paintings so intently. Some years after his departure from Rembrandt’s workshop, Bol appears to have looked at this drawing when preparing the female figure in his haunting etching Hour of Death of circa 1644 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-190).⁶

In 1906, Hofstede de Groot suggested that the present work was a pendant to the drawing of a Standing Man in the Rijksprentenkabinet, which is now, however, given to Philips Koninck (1619-1688) (inv. no. RP-T-1889-A-2058).⁷ Both drawings, which have similar dimensions, were part of the same lot at the important 1883 Jacob de Vos Jbzn sale, in which they were thought to be by Rembrandt. It is possible that they were cut to the same size – the shepherdess is missing the top of her crook at left – around the time of the sale in order to make them look like a pair.⁸

Bonny van Sighem, 2000