Circle of Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693)

Susanna and the Elders

Details

Circle of Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693)
Susanna and the Elders
pen and brown ink, brown wash, brown ink framing lines, watermark foolscap with letters DD
166 x 304 mm.

Provenance

V. van Gogh et al.; R.W.P. de Vries, Amsterdam, 2 December 1913, lot 632 (as Rembrandt School, with wrong measurements).
A. Mos; De Vries, Amsterdam, 7 November 1928, lot 483.
Jonkman et al.; Amsterdam, 25 June 1929, lot 469.
Dr. A. Welcker (L. 2793c), his inscription 'inv. no. 692'; P. Brandt, Amsterdam, 25 February 1943, part lot 382 (to Otto).
E.J. Otto (L. 873b).

Literature

W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, New York, 1984, VIII, p. 4320, no. 1933x, illustrated.

Exhibited

Hamburg, Kunsthalle, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie and Bremen, Landesmuseum, Zeichnungen alter Meister aus deutschem Privatbesitz, 1965-66, no. 143, pl. 64 (as Samuel van Hoogstraten).

Lot Essay

According to Sumowski (op. cit.) the figures of the Elders in this drawing are based on Rembrandt's painting of 1647 in the Gmäldegalerie, Berlin (Bredius 516, Bauch 28, Gerson 221).
This drawing and the following lot belong to a more or less coherent group of drawings, the so-called Pseudo-Victors Group, which mainly represent Biblical subjects. William Robinson has kindly pointed out that the attribution of the drawings to Maes by Sumowski is based on the relationship of one of the drawings in the group, in the British Museum, London (Sumowski, op. cit., no. 1768) to a picture in the Dordrechts Museum, which has been erronneously attributed to Maes (W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt Schler, Landau, 1983, III, no. 1360). No new name has yet been proposed for the author of the Pseudo-Victors Group.

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