A man reading a book by candlelight (recto); An old man, bust-length, his hands on a stick (verso)

The attribution to Stom was kindly suggested by Peter Schatborn in a letter dated 7 October 2004. Mr Schatborn compares the drawing to another of The Betrayal of Christ at the Uffizi (W. Kloek, Nederlandse tekeningen, exhib. cat., Florence, Uffizi, 1964, no. 77, fig. 79) which is connected to a painting by Stom in Dublin (the composition reversed, see Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Paintings, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1981, no. 425). A painting of the same subject as the present drawing is in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (cf. Rembrandt och hans tid, Stockholm, 1990, no. 12). Mr. Schatborn suggests that the verso could be related to the figure of Joseph in The Adoration of Shepherds in the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.
We are grateful to Peter Schatborn for his help in preparing the present note.