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Lot Essay
Until its reappearance in these Rooms in 1977, this drawing was known only through a gloomy reproduction in Hofstede de Groot's article (loc. cit.) and a copy at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, O. Benesch, 1973, illustrated on p. 242. On the basis of the reproduction Benesch compared the handling of the present work to a drawing of Abel slain by Cain in the Kobberstiksamling, Copenhagen (O. Benesch, op. cit., 1973, no. 860), further suggesting that the hillock supporting the figures was inserted later.
Professor Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, who saw the drawing at the time of the 1977 sale, confirmed the attribution to Rembrandt then and the date of about 1650 suggested by Otto Benesch. He dissented from Benesch's view about the hillock, considered it a change introduced by Rembrandt himself and suggested that the thin pen lines to the right of David may well have been added by another hand: they are not evident in the Rhode Island copy, but the hillock is.
An attribution to Aert de Gelder has also been advanced, with reference to a drawing of A group of orientals now in the Maida and George Abrams Collection, W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, V, New York, 1981, no. 1052. That work, which is associated with a painting of 1679 in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, is drawn with sharp diagonal hatching, heavy accents and strong features similar to those on the present sheet.
Professor Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, who saw the drawing at the time of the 1977 sale, confirmed the attribution to Rembrandt then and the date of about 1650 suggested by Otto Benesch. He dissented from Benesch's view about the hillock, considered it a change introduced by Rembrandt himself and suggested that the thin pen lines to the right of David may well have been added by another hand: they are not evident in the Rhode Island copy, but the hillock is.
An attribution to Aert de Gelder has also been advanced, with reference to a drawing of A group of orientals now in the Maida and George Abrams Collection, W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, V, New York, 1981, no. 1052. That work, which is associated with a painting of 1679 in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, is drawn with sharp diagonal hatching, heavy accents and strong features similar to those on the present sheet.