Object data
pen and brown ink, with opaque white; paper correction by the artist for the seated figure on the left; framing line in brown ink
height 176 mm × width 230 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn
Jacob and his Sons
Amsterdam, c. 1641
Inscriptions
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stamped: lower right, with the mark of Suermondt (L. 415)
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inscribed on verso, in pencil: upper right (with the sheet turned upside down, with the Hofstede de Groot cat. no.), deGr. 1160; centre, 7; lower centre (with the no. for the 1895 Pitcairn Knowles sale), 522
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stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of Pitcairn Knowles (L. 2643); lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
Watermark: None visible through lining
Condition
Laid down, light foxing throughout
Provenance
...; sale, Hendrik Albertus M. Croockewit (1784-1863, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (J.C. van Pappelendam and G.J. Schouten), 16 December 1874 sqq., no. 143 (‘Jacob et ses fils. Composition de dix figures à la plume avec de l’encre brune’), fl. 1,020, to Barthold Suermondt (1818-87), Aachen (L. 415);1 his sale, Frankfurt-am-Main (F.A.C. Prestel), 5 May 1879 sqq., no. 128 (‘Jacob assis dans un fauteuil, entouré de ses fils. Composition de dix figures. Dessin magnifique à la plume’), 750 DM;2 ...; collection William Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller & Co.), 25 (26) June 1895 sqq., no. 522, fl. 300, to the dealer C.F. Roos, Amsterdam, for the Vereniging Rembrandt;3 from whom, fl. 345, to the museum (L. 2228), 1901
Object number: RP-T-1901-A-4518
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
On a platform under an arch, Jacob is seated next to his youngest son, Benjamin, who is standing with a cup in one hand and a cap in the other. Flanking this central group are eight of Jacob’s other eleven sons standing or seated. One of them, the seated figure of Judah at right centre, speaks to his father while the others listen attentively.
The scene represented here could be one of two episodes in the story of Jacob and his sons. It might be the moment when nine of the sons ask their father’s permission to take Benjamin along with them to Egypt, in order to secure the release of their brother Simeon, taken hostage by Joseph, the supposedly dead eleventh son who had earlier been sold into slavery by his jealous brothers (Genesis 43:8-9).4 Such an interpretation is supported by the fact that in the drawing Benjamin stands close to his father, as he does in two sixteenth-century biblical illustrations of the sons’ request to take Benjamin along, which appear in Guillaume Guéroult’s Figures de la Bible.5 In these woodcuts, Benjamin stands next to his father, who, in one of the illustrations, puts his arm around him in a protective gesture and whose worried look indicates his unwillingness to let his son travel to Egypt. Benjamin also seems anxious about the decision. So, too, are the brothers, but for a different reason, for they are concerned for the well-being of Simeon, who will continue to be held hostage, unless Judah is able to persuade their father to let Benjamin accompany them.
Alternatively, the drawing may represent the scene when eleven brothers, including Benjamin and Simeon, have returned to Canaan from Egypt and are telling their father that Joseph is still alive and has been made viceroy of Egypt, which Jacob cannot at first believe (Genesis 45:26).6 The second interpretation is implied by the cup in Benjamin’s hand, which Joseph (when still unrecognized by his brothers) had planted in Benjamin’s bag before their departure to test whether his brothers were reformed characters: Joseph threatened to enslave Benjamin as punishment for the theft, until Judah begged him to enslave him instead since the loss of Benjamin would break their father’s heart – a selfless gesture that caused Joseph to recant and to reveal his identity. Yet Benjamin did not take the silver cup back home to Canaan, so, in the drawing, the motif could simply be an attribute to identify him.7 In that case, the first interpretation – the sons’ request for permission to take Benjamin along with them to Egypt – is just as plausible, for the cup itself was not actually present in either episode; Benjamin’s cup and travelling cap might therefore be merely symbolic, alluding to future events.
Rembrandt represented the same subject in a drawing in the Louvre in Paris (inv. no. RF 4703).8 In this version, probably made after the Amsterdam drawing, Benjamin does not have a cap and holds the cup with both hands. He looks at his father rather than his brothers, making it clear that he is focussed on Jacob’s decision. One of the sketchily rendered brothers on the right seems to be pointing, a gesture that also occurs in the abovementioned Bible illustrations. The subject of both drawings is thus most likely to be Jacob’s sons asking permission to take Benjamin with them to Egypt. When Canaan was again struck by famine, Jacob finally relented and allowed Benjamin to go with his brothers to secure more grain for the starving Israelites.
The drawing in the Louvre represents the scene from a different angle, and the steps leading to Jacob’s chair are more clearly delineated. Jacob and Benjamin command the most attention since they have been more fully worked up, while the figures to the left and right are sketched only lightly. The next most prominent figure is Judah, who is likewise speaking. In the Amsterdam sheet, on the contrary, all the figures receive equal emphasis. Powerfully drawn figures with their backs turned to the viewer enclose the composition symmetrically. The brother seated on the platform at the left was drawn a second time on a paper correction, showing that Rembrandt probably had some difficulty with this passage. The eight sons flanking Jacob and Benjamin in the Amsterdam drawing form a less unified group than the correct number of nine sons (and one daughter) in the Louvre drawing.9
Both drawings, with their masterful characterization of the figures, show how Rembrandt was constantly exploring different ways to represent the same theme. These types of drawings were probably also used as models for his pupils. Based on stylistic similarities with Two Men in Discussion, a signed and dated drawing of 1641 in The Courtauld Gallery in London (inv. no. D.1978.PG.190),10 the present drawing can be dated to around 1641.
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1160; W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, I (1925), no. 117 (c. 1638); 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. 46 (1638-39); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 541; 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. 27, with earlier literature; M. de Bazelaire and E. Starcky, Rembrandt et son école: Dessins du Musée du Louvre, exh. cat. Paris 1988-89, p. 45, under no. 31; 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. 16; E. Starcky, Rembrandt: Les Figures, Paris 1999, p. 78; A. Strech et al., ‘Nach dem Leben und aus der Phantasie’: Niederländische Zeichnungen vom 15. bis 18. Jahrhundert aus dem Städelschen Kunstinstitut, exh. cat. Frankfurt-am-Main (Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie) 2000, p. 146, under no. 61; M. Kreutzer, Rembrandt und die Bibel: Radierungen, Zeichnungen, Kommentare, Stuttgart 2003, pp. 56-57; K.A. Schröder and M. Bisanz-Prakken (eds.), Rembrandt, exh. cat. Vienna (Graphische Sammlung Albertina) 2004, no. 105; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 92-93, fig. 90; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt: Cabinet des Dessins (Musée du Louvre), Milan 2006, p. 75, under no. 27; P. Schatborn, C. van Tuyll van Serooskerken and H. Grollemund, Rembrandt dessinateur: Chefs-d’oeuvres des collections en France, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 2006-07, pp. 92-94, under no. 28, fig. 43; RRP V (2011), p. 223, fig. 183; R. Verdi, Rembrandt’s Themes: Life into Art, New Haven/London 2014, pp. 221-22, fig. 196
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacob and his Sons, Amsterdam, c. 1641', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28138
(accessed 22 November 2024 20:07:08).