114 Nude Woman with a Snake
(as Cleopatra)
Red chalk and white chalk heightening; H: 24.7 cm (9 IZ/i6
in.); W: 13.7 cm (5^7 /i6 in.)
8i.GB.2 7 (SEE PLATE i)
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: Fournet, Paris; Otto Gutekunst, Lon-
don; Villiers David, London (sale, Christie's, London,
July 7, 1981, lot 120).
EXHIBITIONS: Catalogue descriptif des dessins de maitres an-
ciens, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, May-June 1879, no.
371 (catalogue by C. Ephrussi and G. Dreyfus). Bur-
lington Fine Arts Club, London, Winter 1927-1928. Ex-
hibition of Dutch Art 1450-1900, Royal Academy of Arts,
London, 1929, no. 580 (catalogueby D. Hannema et al.).
Rembrandt Tentoonstelling, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
June-September 1932, no. 238 (catalogueby F. Schmidt-
Degener). Seventeenth Century Art in Europe, Royal Acad-
emy of Arts? London, 1938, no. 539 (catalogue of draw-
ings by A. E. Popham et al.). Drawings by Old Masters,
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1953, no. 304 (cata-
logue by K. T. Parker andj. Byam Shaw). Rembrandt:
Tentoonstelling ter herdenking van degeboorte van Rembrandt
op I5juli 1606. Tekeningen, Museum Boymans-van Beu-
ningen, Rotterdam, and Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
May-August and August-October 1956, no. 68 (cata-
logue by E. Haverkamp-Begemann).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Byam Shaw, Old Master Drawings 3,
no. 10 (September 1928), pp. 31-32; C. Hofstede de
Groot, "Einige Betrachtungen uber die Ausstellung hol-
landischer Kunst in London," Repertorium fur Kunstwis-
senschaft 50 (1929), p. 141; A.M. Hind, Commemorative
Catalogue of the Exhibition of Dutch Art, exh. cat., Royal
Academy of Arts, London, 1930, p. 198; idem, Rem-
brandt (Cambridge, Mass., 1932), p. 33; O. Benesch,
Rembrandt: Selected Drawings (London, 1947), p. 28, no.
85 ; idem, The Drawings of Rembrandt (London, 1954),
vol. i, no. 137 , fig. 164; idem, Rembrandt as a Draughts-
man (London, 1960), no. 30; L. Goldscheider, Rembrandt:
Paintings, Drawings and Etchings (London, 1960), no. 16 ;
C. White, Rembrandt as an Etcher (London, 1969), vol. i,
pp. 42, 177-178, fig. 266; O. Benesch, The Drawings of
Rembrandt (London, 1973), vol. i, no. 137, fig. 164; M.
Bernhard, Rembrandt: Handzeichnungen (Munich, 1976),
vol. 2, pi. 212; P. Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt in the
Rijksmuseum, His Anonymous Pupils and Followers, Cata-
logue of the Dutch and Flemish Drawings in the Rijks-
prentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, vol. 4 (The
Hague, 1985), pp. 114, n. 5; 257.THIS DRAWING FIRST APPEARED IN 1879 IN AN
exhibition in Paris (no. 371), with a correct attribution to
Rembrandt. Its principal characteristics are described in
the initial publication of J. Byam Shaw (1928), who iden-
tified the subject as Cleopatra and noted the similar use
of chalk in the Study of an Elephant of 1637 in the Alber-
tina, Vienna (inv. 17.558; Benesch 1973, vol. 2 , no. 457).
Rich line work rendering remarkably subtle surface tex-
tures and volumes is employed in both drawings. Byam
Shaw's observation of the sensitive modeling and plas-
ticity of form have been further developed in the pene-
trating analysis of the drawing by White (1969, vol. I, p.
177). Taking up a hint by Byam Shaw (1928, p. 32, n. i)
concerning the relationship between the Museum's
drawing and Rembrandt's etching Adam and Eve (B.28)
of 163 8, White has suggested that the figure in the former
served as the model for Eve in the latter. The two are
comparable in proportion and in the volumetric and
rather classical presentation of form. Their differences
are largely to be explained by thematic context and me-
dium (White 1969, vol. i, p. 178). The direct relationship
between them is enhanced by the proposal—made by
Byam Shaw (1928, p. 32)—that the drawing was a ren-
dering of a studio model to which Rembrandt added the
specific attributes of Cleopatra. The relationship of the
Cleopatra to the model in Rembrandt's etching An Artist
Drawing from the Model (B. 192) of circa 1639 adds further
weight to this idea. In fact the model is shown in this etch-
ing in a comparable pose, with a strongly classical flavor,
and holding drapery bunched along her left side much as
in the Museum's drawing. Based on these comparisons,
the latter is generally dated to circa 1637. It is among the
best preserved of the artist's chalk studies, with the lu-
minous white highlights fully intact.256 DUTCH SCHOOL • REMBRANDT