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拍品專文
The drawing shares stylistic features with several Rembrandt school works from ca. 1648-1655, as noted in the 2016 Christie’s New York sale catalogue (Christie’s, New York, 27 January, lot 35; the catalogue entry, compiled with the assistance of Peter Schatborn, compares four drawings, all in Berlin: Benesch, op. cit., nos. 647, 873, 877 and 878. See H. Bevers, Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett. Kritischer Katalog, Berlin, 2018, respectively nos. 122, 128, 129 and 121, ill.). The principal figures, including Pharaoh in the center, are neatly drawn yet cautiously, with timid, delicate outlines that lack the assurance and fluency of Rembrandt’s own touch. Similar restraint characterizes the evenly applied brown wash and informs the inexpressive individual characterizations of the chief protagonists (most and perhaps all of the grey wash, especially the striations applied to the figure with the quiver and to the man closest to the tree in the left distance, as well as in his companion between Pharaoh and the man with his arm raised, appears to have been added later). These traits are repeated in another school drawing of ca. 1650, Christ with Mary and Martha in the British Museum (1895,0915.1254; Benesch, op. cit., no. 632), where the spikily drawn right hand of Christ finds a close parallel in the Pharaoh's left hand in the present sheet.
One previously overlooked aspect of the drawing is the presence of passages of bolder work where Rembrandt himself corrected his pupil’s effort. These include the parasol, drawn with striking confidence, as well as much of the lower center, where the raised embankment supporting the scene has been worked up. Further adjustments were made to the kneeling Aaron’s right leg and left foot, and to the man with the quiver at the right, whose left arm, collar, and hat received minor refinements. The pupil responsible for most of the drawing remains unidentified but like Willem Drost (1633-1659), whose drawings are stylistically close, was evidently active in Rembrandt’s studio in the early 1650s.
Otto Benesch, who first published the drawing, described the subject as Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh (Exodus 7, 8-12), perhaps following tradition, but as the iconography typically focuses on the staff’s transformation into a serpent, this title was dropped in the 2016 sale catalogue. Yet it remains plausible that in Rembrandt's own orbit the staff might be shown prior to its metamorphosis and so the identification should be retained unless a more persuasive alternative can be proposed.
We are grateful to Martin Royalton-Kisch for his help in cataloguing this drawing.
One previously overlooked aspect of the drawing is the presence of passages of bolder work where Rembrandt himself corrected his pupil’s effort. These include the parasol, drawn with striking confidence, as well as much of the lower center, where the raised embankment supporting the scene has been worked up. Further adjustments were made to the kneeling Aaron’s right leg and left foot, and to the man with the quiver at the right, whose left arm, collar, and hat received minor refinements. The pupil responsible for most of the drawing remains unidentified but like Willem Drost (1633-1659), whose drawings are stylistically close, was evidently active in Rembrandt’s studio in the early 1650s.
Otto Benesch, who first published the drawing, described the subject as Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh (Exodus 7, 8-12), perhaps following tradition, but as the iconography typically focuses on the staff’s transformation into a serpent, this title was dropped in the 2016 sale catalogue. Yet it remains plausible that in Rembrandt's own orbit the staff might be shown prior to its metamorphosis and so the identification should be retained unless a more persuasive alternative can be proposed.
We are grateful to Martin Royalton-Kisch for his help in cataloguing this drawing.