Three studies of men wearing hats

Details

SCHOOL OF REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (LEIDEN 1606-1669 AMSTERDAM)
Three studies of men wearing hats
pen and brown ink, brown wash
3 x 3 ½ in. (7.4 x 9 cm)

Provenance

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), London (L. 2364).
Edward Vernon Utterson (1775-1856), London (L. 909 erased).
Dr. Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague (L. 561); C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, 4 November 1931, lot 142 (as Nicolaes Maes).
Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner (1880-1858), New York.
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (inv. G.63.3.43); Sotheby's, New York, 27 January 1999, lot 74 (as School of Rembrandt).

Literature

W.R. Valentiner, Nicolaes Maes, Stuttgart, 1924, p. 52, ill. (as Nicolaes Maes).
W. Stechow, 'Review of Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Nicolaes Maes 1924,' Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 187 (1925), p. 146.
'Accessions of American and Canadian Museums. From the Valentiner Bequest', The Art Quarterly, XXVI, no. 2 (Summer 1963), p. 249, ill.
'Biennial Report of the director: The Valentiner Bequest,' North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin, VI, 4, 1965, p. 10 (as Nicolaes Maes).
B. Broos, Rembrandt en tekenaars uit zijn omgeving, oude tekeningen in het bezit van de Gemeentemusea van Amsterdam waaronder de collective Fodor, Amsterdam, 1981, p. 178 (as Nicolaes Maes).
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, VIII, New York, 1984, no. 1985X, ill. (as Nicolaes Maes).

Exhibited

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Tentoonstelling van een zevental schilderijen, afkomstig uit de verzameling Steengracht en van twee-en-negentig tekeningen door Rembrandt, waaronder vijf-en-zestig door Dr C. Hofstede de Groot aan den staat geschonken, 1913, no. 59.
Amsterdam, van Rijkom, 25 tekeningen door Rembrandt uit de verzameling Dr. C. Hofstede de Groot, 1913, no. 59 (catalogue by H.T. van Berkhout, as Rembrandt).
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum 'De Lakenhal,' Tentoonstelling van Teekeningen van Rembrandt uit de verzameling van Dr. C. Hofstede de Groot (part 2 of the 3-part exhibition of drawings from the Hofstede de Groot Collection), 1916, no. 25 (as Rembrandt).
The Hague, Gemeente Museum, Verzameling dr. C. Hofstede de Groot, 1930, no. 84 (as Rembrandt).

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Giada Damen, Ph.D. AVP, Specialist, Head of Sale

gdamen@christies.com +1 212 641 7532

Lot Essay

The drawing belongs to a group of similarly executed figure studies the attribution history of which illustrates the complications of connoisseurship in the field of Rembrandt school drawings. The present sheet, like the rest of the group, was considered by Hofstede de Groot as autograph work by Rembrandt. Valentiner, who owned the drawing and bequeathed it to the North Carolina Museum of Art, reattributed the sheet to Nicolaes Maes. Several subsequent scholars, including Werner Sumowski, supported the attribution to Maes. More recently, however, the corpus of accepted drawings by Maes has been reduced and this group of sheets has been removed from it.

The drawing has been traditionally dated to the 1650s and can be compared with other studies in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and London (see Sumowski, op. cit., nos. 1974x, 1995x, and 1987x).

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