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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1961.151
People
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Dutch (Leiden 1606 - 1669 Amsterdam)
Title
A Woman in Bed with a Child
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Saskia Ill in Bed with a Child
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1636-1639
Culture
Dutch
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/296970

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Brown ink and brown wash, with later additions of gray wash, on cream antique laid paper, laid down
Dimensions
18.4 x 23.7 cm (7 1/4 x 9 5/16 in.)
mount: 23.1 x 29.2 cm (9 1/8 x 11 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: lower left, black ink: Rembrandt
  • inscription: mount, lower right, graphite: 97
  • collector's mark: lower right, black ink, stamp: L. 2793 (Nathanial Hone)
  • inscription: mount, verso, center, graphite: Je sousigné, expert, ayant en souvent au main / des dessin de Rembrandt, declare le présent episode / d'interieur comme authentique / E. Julliers / 12 rue Sarpiner [?], Paris.
  • inscription: mount, verso, lower right, graphite: Hyx n... [illegible, c? or g? or y?]
  • collector's mark: mount, verso, lower left, purple ink, stamp: L. 1880 (Marsden J. Perry)
  • inscription: former mount, in curatorial file, graphite: The signature is probably added by another hand, / although the drawing is unquestoinably by Remrandt
  • inscription: former mount, in curatorial file, brown ink: Ver remarkable drawing by Rembrandt about 1635 / made after Saskia when she was expecting a child; in the / [illeg] the large basket used in Holland for child birth. W. R. Valentiner
  • inscription: former mount, in curatorial file, graphite: Study of Rembrandt's wife and hi[hidden behind label]not guaranteed to be by Rembrandt
  • inscription: former mount, in curatorial file, graphite: Rembrandt Original Drawing representing his wife and child in their bedchamber
  • inscription: mount, verso, lower right, graphite: 515.27
  • watermark: a wreath made up of a series of "figure eights" with a staff and crook crossed in the center

    A watermark is visible in raking light similar to Churchill 544, Undetermined French, 1640. The watermark in this drawing is rounder in shape than Churchill's example. Beta will not be made. Mount is too thick.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Nathaniel Hone, London (L. 2793, with his mark). Marsden J. Perry, Providence, RI (L. 1880, with his mark). [Duveen Brothers, New York], to Meta and Paul J. Sachs, Cambridge, MA, 1924 (L. 2091, without his mark), gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1961.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Meta and Paul J. Sachs
Accession Year
1961
Object Number
1961.151
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • William R. Valentiner, "Aus Rembrandts Häuslichkeit", Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft (1923), pp. 277-282, repr.
  • William R. Valentiner, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, E. Weyhe Gallery and Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (New York and Stuttgart, Germany, 1925), vol. 2, repr. p. 263, no. 696
  • William R. Valentiner, Rembrandt; des Meisters Handzeichnungen, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (Stuttgart, Germany, 1925), vol. 2, p. 263, fig. 696
  • Arthur Mayger Hind, Rembrandt Norton Lectures (Cambridge, MA, 1932), pp. 125-26, repr. pl. 101
  • Winslow Ames, Drawings: Fourth Anniversary Exhibition, exh. cat., Lyman Allen Museum (New London, CT, 1936), cat. no. 78, repr. pl. 78
  • Agnes Mongan and Paul J. Sachs, Drawings in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 1940), vol. 1, cat. no. 522, pp. 275-6; vol. 2, repr. fig. 268
  • Hans Tietze, European Master Drawings in the United States, J. J. Augustin, Inc. (New York, 1947), cat. no. 66, pp. 132-33, repr.
  • Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of Europe during the XVIth - XVIIth Centuries, exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum (1948), cat. no. 49, p. 37
  • An Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Drawings and Watercolors, checklist, Unpublished (1954), cat. no. 47, p. 12
  • Felice Stampfle and Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, Rembrandt Drawings from American Collections, exh. cat., The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, NY, 1960), cat. no. 33, pp. 27-28, repr. pl. 28, fig. 33
  • Ernst W. Watson and Aldren A. Watson, Watson Drawing Book, Reinhold Publishing Co. (New York, NY, 1962), p. 103, repr. fig. 156, p. 102
  • [Reproduction only], "Wash Drawing", American Artist, (March 1963)., repr. p. 22
  • Agnes Mongan, Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965]: given and bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1965), cat. no. 22, n.p., repr., and p. 206
  • Seymour Slive, "Rembrandt at Harvard", Apollo (June 1978), vol. 107, no. 196, pp. 452-463, pp. 454-55, repr. p. 455, fig. 4
  • Mechtild König and Sylvia Riedmaier, BilderBuch: Alte Meister Kassel, Langemann & Langemann (Munich, 2000), repr. p. 72
  • Julia Lloyd Williams, Rembrandt's Women, exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland (Edinburgh, Scotland, 2001), under cat. no. 77, pp. 159, 256 (n. 5)
  • Drawings by Rembrandt in the Rijksmuseum, website, 2017, https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-T-1930-53/catalogus-entry [accessed March 28, 2018]

Exhibition History

  • Fourth Anniversary Exhibition; Drawings, Lyman Allen Museum, New London, 03/02/1936 - 04/15/1936
  • Drawings from the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University (Collected by Paul J. Sachs), Century Club, New York, 05/12/1947 - 09/25/1947
  • Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of Europe during the XVIth-XVIIth Centuries, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, 01/01/1948 - 12/31/1948
  • An Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Drawings and Watercolors, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/01/1954 - 04/30/1954
  • Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965] Given and Bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 11/15/1965 - 01/15/1966; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 12/19/1966 - 02/26/1967
  • Rembrandt: A Selection of his Works, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 10/18/1984 - 12/11/1984

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