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Lot Essay
A drawing (127 x 78 mm.) in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (inv. 5790; see Rembrandt Drawings from the Berlin Kupferstichkabinnett, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, The Rembrandt House Museum, 2007, no. 31) has been traditionally given to Rembrandt himself, albeit with some hesitation, but in fact appears to be a contemporary copy after the present previously unpublished work. Comparison between certain passages in the two drawings, such as the dog's head and hind legs, the relationship between the beggar's hand and the hat he holds, and the delineation of the boy's torso confirm the superiority of the present work.
The drawing can be compared to a few other chalk drawings dating from the late 1640's, especially a Beggar couple with dog in the Albertina (O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, London, ed. 1973, IV, no. 751), and a Blind beggar and his family of similar dimensions and bearing an almost identical inscription, now in the Amsterdam Museum, Fodor Collection (inv. A10628; O. Benesh, The Drawings of Rembrandt, London, 1973, vol. IV, no. 749, fig. 946). On the verso of that drawing is a portrait of Jan Six which is a study for an etching dated 1647 (Hind 228).
This and the following six drawings are exciting new additions to the oeuvre of Rembrandt and his pupils, all unpublished with the exception of lot 53. They were probably in the collection of Auguste-Charles-Joseph de Flahaut de La Billarderie, the distinguished French general and ambassador, who served as aide-de-camp to Napoleon. In 1817 he married the Scottish heiress Margaret Mercer Elphinstone, the daughter of Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, who later inherited her father's title as 2nd Baroness Keith.
We are grateful to Peter Schatborn for confirming the attribution on examination of the original.
The drawing can be compared to a few other chalk drawings dating from the late 1640's, especially a Beggar couple with dog in the Albertina (O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, London, ed. 1973, IV, no. 751), and a Blind beggar and his family of similar dimensions and bearing an almost identical inscription, now in the Amsterdam Museum, Fodor Collection (inv. A10628; O. Benesh, The Drawings of Rembrandt, London, 1973, vol. IV, no. 749, fig. 946). On the verso of that drawing is a portrait of Jan Six which is a study for an etching dated 1647 (Hind 228).
This and the following six drawings are exciting new additions to the oeuvre of Rembrandt and his pupils, all unpublished with the exception of lot 53. They were probably in the collection of Auguste-Charles-Joseph de Flahaut de La Billarderie, the distinguished French general and ambassador, who served as aide-de-camp to Napoleon. In 1817 he married the Scottish heiress Margaret Mercer Elphinstone, the daughter of Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, who later inherited her father's title as 2nd Baroness Keith.
We are grateful to Peter Schatborn for confirming the attribution on examination of the original.