PIETER LASTMAN
wg Study of a Kneeling Man
Red chalk; H: n.i cm (4^3 /sin.); W: 9.4 cm (3"/i6in.)
83.GB.26 8MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: Art market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
THE KNEELING MAN REPRESENTED IN THIS DRAWING
corresponds in a number of significant respects to figures
in paintings by Lastman. The pose and drapery are com-
parable to those of the kneeling figure in the center of his
Coriolanus of 1622 (Dublin, Trinity College).^1 Moreover,
in both painting and drawing, the drapery consists of
elaborate folds and deeply shadowed long grooves with
a very similar motif in front of the knees. These same
long drapery folds, richly textured and varied, occur
again in Lastman's painting Bileam and the Angel of 1622
(Clapton Revel, E. C. Palmer collection).^2 Similarly, the
unusual depiction of the eyes, with large whites and
sharply defined pupils looking expressively upward, is
found in his Defeat of Maxentius (Kunsthalle Bremen).^3
This same idiosyncracy and the rendering of the large,
tremulous hands recur in the Offering to Manoah of 1627
(Saint Peter Port, D. Cevat collection).^4
These quite clear relationships to his paintings
would seem to argue conclusively for an attribution to
Lastman. However, there is less available comparative
material among his drawings. Only a small number of
red chalk studies survive, and they are all looser and less
detailed than the Museum's drawing. Nonetheless,
among them certain analogies do exist. The large hands
and characteristic eyes with stark pupils are found in a
study, Man Carrying a Crate, in the van Regteren Altena
collection, Amsterdam,^5 and another, of Saint Francis, in
the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam.^6
Both drawings exhibit less carefully worked drapery and
are much more rapidly drawn in general than the Mu-
seum's sheet. However, it should not be assumed that
Lastman used red chalk only for quick sketches, espe-
cially as this would be contrary to what we know of the
drawings of Rembrandt and Lievens. Furthermore, the
former owned a book of red chalk drawings by Lastman,
suggesting that the medium was of greater importance
to him than his small surviving corpus would indicate.^7
Therefore, given its association with his painted figures
and certain aspects of his drawings—as well as the ab-
sence of any preferable attribution-—the ascription to
Lastman should be maintained.- W. Sumowski, "Rotelzeichnungen von Pieter Lastman,"
Jahrbuch derHamburger Kunstsammlungen 14/15 (1970), fig. i. - W. Sumowski, "Zeichnungen von Lastman und aus dem
Lastman-Kreis," GiessenerBeitrdgezurKunstgeschichte 3 (1975),
fig. 21. - K. Bauch, Der friihe Rembrandt und seine Zeit (Berlin, 1960),
% 38. - Sumowski (note 2), fig. 7.
- W. Bernt, Die niederlandischen Zeichner des rj. Jahrhunderts
(Munich, 1958), vol. 2, no. 354. - Sumowski (note i), fig. 4.
- C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Urkunden uber Rembrandt (The
Hague, 1906), no. 264.
246 DUTCH SCHOOL • LASTMAN