Object data
pen and brown ink, with brown wash and opaque white, some areas deliberately rubbed with a finger or wet brush
height 195 mm × width 293 mm
Rembrandt van Rijn
David Hearing the News of Uriah’s Death
Amsterdam, c. 1650
Inscriptions
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inscribed: upper left, in pencil, : o (?); lower left, in pencil, R[..]b[...] R[..]; lower right, in brown ink (effaced), Rembrandt van Rein.
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inscribed on verso: upper left, by Gawet, in brown ink, F Gawet 804 (L. 1070); below that, by Wiesböck, in grey ink, C. Wiesböck 844 (L. 2576); below that, with the mark of Novák, in purple pencil, jnovakay (L. 1949); lower left, by Festetits, in brown ink, Samuel de Festetits / 1846. (L. 926); below that, in pencil, klinkosch 1889; lower centre, in pencil, Todesko 1892
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stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
Watermark: Foolscap, similar to Heawood, no. 1922 (1651)
Condition
Light foxing throughout1
Provenance
...; collection Franz Gawet (1762/65-1847), Vienna (L. 1070); ...; collection Carl L. Wiesböck (1811-74), Vienna (L. 2576); ...; collection Graf Samuel von Festetits (1806-62), Vienna (L. 926), 1846;2 ...; collection Freiherr Philipp Draexler von Carin (1794-1874), Vienna;3 ...; collection Josef Carl Ritter von Klinkosch (1822-88), Vienna, 1872;4 his sale, Vienna (C.J. Wawra), 15 April 1889 sqq., no. 710 (‘Urias überreicht Davids Brief an Joab. [...] Federzeichnung, mit Sepia lavirt’), 250 Austrian Schillings, to Maximilian Todesco (1813-1890), Vienna;5 his sale, Vienna (H.O. Miethke & A. Einsle), 15 (18) February 1892 sqq., no. 520 (‘Urias überreicht Davids Brief an Joab. [...] Federzeichnung, mit Sepia lavirt’), fl. 100, to A. Einsle;6 ...; purchased from Josef Vincenc Novàk (1842-1918), Prague (L. 1949), by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), 1904;7 by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930
Object number: RP-T-1930-10
Credit line: Gift of C. Hofstede de Groot, The Hague
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
King David has risen from his chair and stands at the centre, looking towards the man who enters the room carrying the armour of Uriah the Hittite as proof of his death on the battlefield. With this news, David realizes that his plan has succeeded. He had deliberately ordered Uriah to be sent to the front after having fallen in love with his wife, Bathsheba, and having made her pregnant. ‘But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.’ And the Lord sent Nathan to rebuke David (2 Samuel 11-12). The prophet Nathan stands on the right – in the wings as it were – waiting to admonish David and to make him repent. After a period of mourning, David took Bathsheba as his wife, but as punishment, Nathan foretold that the son born to them would die.
In the drawing, one of a large group of drawings of biblical scenes made around 1650, Rembrandt brought together different parts of the story, not only by having both the messenger and Nathan appear at the same time, but also by suggesting David’s sense of guilt in his reaction to the news of Uriah’s death. According to the biblical text, David experienced remorse and repentance only after Nathan has admonished him. Like a stage director, Rembrandt carefully orchestrated the main action, which is restricted to the right half of the sheet; on the left there is only an empty chair. David has stood up, but does not walk directly towards the messenger. Instead he keeps his distance and stares at him, as if unable to confront the consequences of his evil orders. The setting is only summarily indicated by a series of tall, arched openings beneath a rounded roofline. This is an allusion to the beginning of the story, when from the roof of his palace David saw Uriah’s wife bathing in the pool of the palace garden. In the drawing, Rembrandt has thus united past and future events through his use of staging, decor and characterization.
The drawing clearly shows how Rembrandt developed the scene in several stages: first, he used fine lines, as in the figure of Nathan, then broad, darker pen lines to strengthen and clarify the forms, as in the figure of David. To obtain delicate shadows, he lightly rubbed the ink in several places, probably with his dry finger and corrections were made using opaque white, for instance in the messenger’s right arm. Although this particular episode was seldom represented, Rembrandt did depict other scenes from the life of David in drawings, paintings and one etching.
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1255; W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, I (1925), no. 163 (c. 1655-60); 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. 60 (1650-52); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 890 (c. 1652); 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. 37, with earlier literature; M. Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and his Circle in the British Museum, exh. cat. London 1992, p. 127, under no. 55, p. 212, under no. 104; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, p. 104, fig. 101; RRP V (2011), p. 242, fig. 234; R. Verdi, Rembrandt’s Themes: Life into Art, New Haven/London 2014, p. 127, fig. 109
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, David Hearing the News of Uriah’s Death, Amsterdam, 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.28555
(accessed 14 November 2024 18:39:22).