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Monochromatic drawing of a man clothed in a buttoned robe, cloak, and turban, seated on a chair.

Monochromatic drawing of a man seated on a chair, facing towards the viewer. He is dressed in an unadorned robe, flowing cloak, calf boots, and simple turban. Buttons run along the middle of the robe and sides of the cloak. The robe and cloak drape over the sides of the chair, which is largely obscured save for the legs. The man sports a plain, uninterested expression and a beard that thickens around his jawline. His hands sit simply across his lap, giving the man an air of calmness.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2009.203
People
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Dutch (Amsterdam, Netherlands 1621 - 1674 Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Title
A Seated Man in Middle Eastern Costume
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1646
Culture
Dutch
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/212653

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black chalk and gray wash on cream antique laid paper, framing line in brown ink
Dimensions
23.1 x 13.5 cm (9 1/8 x 5 5/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: verso, upper right, graphite: Rembrant Van Rhy[n] / 1606-1669
  • inscription: verso, lower center, red chalk: 6
  • inscription: verso, lower right, graphite: No 3
  • inscription: verso, upper right, graphite: vente P. Mathe[y]
  • collector's mark: verso, lower left, blue ink stamp: M G A [in monogram] [Lugt 3306, mark of Maida and George Abrams]
  • watermark: none

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Perhaps Alfred Boreel, Amsterdam [1], sold; [Muller, Amsterdam, 15 June 1908, lot 77 (as Rembrandt).] Paul Mathey, Paris, sold; [Hôtel Drouot (Delteil), Paris, 28 November 1924, lot 77, repr. (as attributed to Rembrandt).] [Richard Day, London], sold; to Maida and George Abrams, Boston, 1972 (L. 3306, verso, lower left); The Maida and George Abrams Collection, 2009.203

[1]. Although A. Boreel is listed as a consigner at Muller’s sale of 15 June 1908, he is not specified as the seller of our drawing. Sumowski confidently concluded that Boreel owned our drawing, but we prefer instead to qualify his ownership with, “perhaps.”

Published Text

Catalogue
Drawings from the Age of Bruegel, Rubens, and Rembrandt: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums
Authors
William W. Robinson and Susan Anderson
Publisher
Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2016)

Catalogue entry no. 31 by William W. Robinson:

Rembrandt’s “great friend and favorite pupil,”2 Gerbrand van den Eeckhout was the most versatile draftsman among the master’s students and close followers. His two hundred surviving drawings, executed in a wide range of media, represent biblical compositions, genre scenes, portraits, figure studies, landscapes, and designs for book illustrations, ornamental engravings, and goldsmith work.3

The attribution of the Harvard drawing to Van den Eeckhout depends primarily on the similarity of its technique to that of documented works by the artist, including a signed study of a sleeping boy (Fig. 1).4 The integration of the media, particularly the scattered dabs of wash applied in places over short strokes of black chalk, is similar in all these sheets. Additionally, Van den Eeckhout drew a study in black and white chalk of the same model wearing a turban and more elaborate historicizing costume (Fig. 2), which he reproduced in a painting dated 1646, David Promises Bathsheba to Designate Solomon as His Successor.5 Although not directly preparatory for the picture, the Harvard drawing almost certainly dates from the same time. The model wears a type of fanciful Middle Eastern costume that appears in this and several other paintings of Old Testament subjects by the artist.6

Notes

1 (This note refers to the provenance.) Alfred Boreel is listed as a consigner at Muller’s sale of 15 June 1908, and Werner Sumowski (Drawings of the Rembrandt School, New York, 1979, vol. 3, cat. 724x, pp. 1562–63) designated him as the owner of our drawing. However, the sale catalogue does not specify the seller of this lot, so it is not certain that it was consigned by Boreel.

2 Arnold Houbraken, De groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen (First ed. 1718–21; reprint Amsterdam, 1943), vol. 1, pp. 137 and 174, vol. 2, p. 79.

3 Sumowski, vol. 3, p. 1311, and cats. 601–819xx.

4 Ibid., vol. 3, and cats. 611, 622, and 634. Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Sleeping Boy (Fig. 1). Black chalk, gray wash. 216 × 171 mm. Signed, lower right, black chalk, G. V. Eeckhout / fec. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP‑T‑1899‑A-4305. Sumowski, vol. 3, cat. 634, p. 1378.

5 Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Man in Middle Eastern Costume (study for King David) (Fig. 2). Black and white chalk on light brown paper. 387 × 261 mm. Hamburg, Kunsthalle, 21944. Sumowski, vol. 3, cat. 612, p. 1334; Anne Röver-Kann, Rembrandt, oder nicht? Zeichnungen von Rembrandt und seinem kreis aus den Hamburger und Bremer Kupferstichkabinetten (Bremen: Kunsthalle Bremen, 2000), cat. 14, pp. 50–51; Annemarie Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen 1450–1850: Kupferstichkabinett der Hamburger Kunsthalle. (Cologne 2011), vol. 1, cat. 285, p. 204. For the painting David Promises Bathsheba to Designate Solomon as His Successor, see Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt‑Schüler in vier Bänden (Landau, Germany, 1983), vol. 2, cat. 403, p. 728.

6 Sumowski (1983), vol. 2, cats. 393, 426, 449, and 458.

Figures

Fig. 1 Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Sleeping Boy

Fig. 2 Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Man in Middle Eastern Costume

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
The Maida and George Abrams Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Accession Year
2009
Object Number
2009.203
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Werner Sumowski, "Gerbrand van den Eeckhout als Zeichner", Oud Holland (1962), vol. 77, pp. 11-39, p. 17, repr. p. 16, fig. 13
  • Werner Sumowski, "Zeichnungen Rembrandts und seines Kreises im Kupferstichkabinett der Veste Coburg", Jahrbuch der Coburger Landesstiftung (1963), no. 8, pp. 89-106, p. 102 (n. 64)
  • Werner Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, ed. Walter Strauss, Abaris Books (New York, NY, 1979), vol. 3, cat. no. 724x, pp. 1562-63, repr., and under cat. no. 612, p. 1334, under cat. no. 725x, p. 1564, under cat. no. 782x, p. 1686, and under cat. no. 786x, p. 1694
  • Frederik J. Duparc, "[Review] Collectie Abrams in Rijksprentenkabinet", Tableau (1991), vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 40-42, p. 41
  • William W. Robinson, Seventeenth-Century Dutch Drawings: A Selection from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat., H. O. Zimman, Inc. (Lynn, MA, 1991), cat. no. 54, pp. 126-7, repr. p. 127
  • Mària van Berge-Gerbaud, Rembrandt et son école: Dessins de la collection Frits Lugt, exh. cat., Fondation Custodia (Paris, 1997), under cat. no. 57, p. 130
  • Anne Röver-Kann, Rembrandt, oder nicht? Zeichnungen von Rembrandt und seinem kreis aus den Hamburger und Bremer Kupferstichkabinetten, exh. cat., Hatje Cantz (Ostfildern-Ruit, 2000), under cat. no. 14, p. 50, repr. fig. c
  • Peter C. Sutton and William W. Robinson, Drawings by Rembrandt, his Students and Circle from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat., Bruce Museum and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2011), cat. no. 36, pp. 110-11, repr.
  • Annemarie Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen 1450-1850: Kupferstichkabinett der Hamburger Kunsthalle, ed. Andreas Stolzenburg and Hubertus Gaßner, Böhlau Verlag (Cologne, 2011), vol. 1, under cat. no. 285, p. 204
  • William W. Robinson and Susan Anderson, Drawings from the Age of Bruegel, Rubens, and Rembrandt: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2016), p. 20; cat. no. 31, pp. 119-120, repr. p. 120

Exhibition History

  • Seventeenth-Century Dutch Drawings: A Selection from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 02/23/1991 - 04/18/1991; Albertina Gallery, Vienna, 05/16/1991 - 06/30/1991; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 01/22/1992 - 04/22/1992; Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/10/1992 - 12/06/1992
  • Abrams 50th reunion exhibition, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/2004 - 06/14/2004
  • Drawings by Rembrandt, his Students and Circle from the Collection of Maida and George Abrams, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, 09/24/2011 - 01/08/2012; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 04/15/2012 - 07/08/2012
  • Imagine Me and You: Dutch and Flemish Encounters with the Islamic World, 1450–1750, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/18/2024 - 08/18/2024

Subjects and Contexts

  • Dutch, Flemish, & Netherlandish Drawings

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu