The Good Samaritan

The composition derives from the painting of similar size in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. no. P203) that is now attributed to Govaert Flinck. That painting bears a monogram and is dated 'RHL/1630' and was at one stage considered to be a preliminary sketch for Rembrandt's etching of circa 1633. The present painting and the London painting differ from the etching in the same several details, excluding a defecating dog, a barrel, a fodder-rack, flowers and grass which appear in the foreground of the engraving. There are also several differences to the architecture and costumes of the figures. The relation of the London painting to Rembrandt's etching indicates that the artist must have had access to a now lost design, likely a grisaille on paper, by the master, which may have corresponded more directly to the composition both of the painting in the Wallace Collection and of the present lot.