117 A Sailing Boat on a Wide
Expanse (View of the
NieuweMeer?)
Pen and brown ink and brown wash on light brown
tinted paper; H: 8.9 cm (3^ in.); W: 18.2 cm (y^3 /i6 in.)
8s.GA.94
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left corner, col-
lection mark of N. A. Flinck (L. 959).
PROVENANCE: N. A. Flinck, Rotterdam; William, sec-
ond duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth; by descent to the
current duke (sale, Christie's, London, July 3, 1984, lot
60); art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Exhibition of Dutch Art 1450-1900, Royal
Academy of Arts, London, 1929, no. 606 (catalogue by
D. Hannema et al.). Rembrandt Tentoonstelling, Rijks-
museum, Amsterdam, July-October 1935, no. 64.
Seventeenth-Century Art in Europe, Royal Academy of
Arts, London, 1938, no. 545 (catalogue of drawings by
A. E. Popham et al.). Old Master Drawings from Chats-
worth, Arts Council Gallery, London, 1949, no. 38 (cat-
alogue by A. E. Popham). Drawings by Old Masters,
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1953, no. 300 (cata-
logue by K. T. Parker and J. Byam Shaw). Rembrandt,
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, January-April 1956 , no.
130 (catalogue by B. Dahlback and P. Bjurstrom). The
Orange and the Rose: Holland and Britain in the Age of Ob-
servation, 1600-1750, Victoria and Albert Museum, Lon-
don, October-December 1964, no. 109. Rembrandt
1669-1969, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1969, no. 94
(catalogue of drawings by L. C. J. Frerichs and P. Schat-
born). "Shock of Recognition": The Landscape of English
Romanticism and the Dutch Seventeenth-Century School,
Mauritshuis, The Hague, and Tate Gallery, London, No-
vember 1970-January 1971 and January-February 1971,
no. 81 (catalogue by A. G. H. Bachrach). Treasures from
Chatsworth: The Devonshire Inheritance, Virginia Mu-
seum of Fine Arts, Richmond, and other institutions,
1979-1980, no. 97 (catalogue by A. Blunt et al.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Lippmann, Original Drawings by
Rembrandt, ist ser. (Berlin, 1888-1892), no. 60; E.
Michel, Rembrandt, sa vie, son oeuvre, et son temps (Paris,
1893), p. 121; C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnun-
gen Rembrandts (Haarlem, 1906), p. 194, no. 848; A. M.
Hind, The Vasari Society for the Reproduction of Drawings
by Old Masters, ist ser. (Oxford, 1907), vol. 3 , no. 25; M.
Eisler, Rembrandt ah Landschafter, Arbeiten des Kunsthis-
torischen Instituts der K. K. Universitat Wien (Munich,
1918), vol. 13, p. 65; C. Neumann, RembrandtHandzeich-
nungen (Munich, 1918), p. 4, no. 27; F. Lugt, Mit Rem-
brandt in Amsterdam (Berlin, 1920), p. 155; A. M. Hind,
Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of Dutch Art,
exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, p. 207 ;
O. Benesch, Rembrandt: Werk und Forschung (Vienna,
1935), p. 42; idem, The Drawings of Rembrandt (London,
!955), vol. 4, no. 847, fig. 995; S. Slive, Drawings of Rem-
brandt (New York, 1965), vol. i, pi. 60; B. Haak, Rem-
brandt, His Life, His Work, His Time (New York, 1969),
p. 211; C. O. Baer, Landscape Drawings (New York,
1973), pp- 214, 216, no. 90; O. Benesch, The Drawings of
Rembrandt (London, 1973), vol. 4, no. 847, fig. 1049; B.
Haak, Rembrandt Drawings (London, 1976), no. 57. J.
Byam Shaw, "Drawings from Chats worth, "Apollo 119,
no. 268 (June 1984), p. 456.IT WAS TENTATIVES SUGGESTED BY LUGT (1920.)
p. 155) that the site depicted in this famous drawing is the
Nieuwe Meer, a lake between the Schinckel River and
the Haarlemmermeer, which has since been reclaimed.
The drawing has been compared by Benesch (1973, vol.
4 , no. 847) to the Landscape with a Farmstead in the Dev-
onshire collection, Chatsworth (inv. 1048), which he has
related in turn to the Winter Landscape in the Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge (inv. 1932.368). Benesch (1973,
vol. 4, nos. 845-846) dated both drawings to around
1649-1650. They are certainly related through the sug-
gestion of atmospheric distance, but the Museum's
drawing is more complex and sophisticated than the
Winter Landscape and more richly drawn tha'n the Land-
scape with a Farmstead. In composition as well as execution
it comes closest to the View over Het Ij (Chatsworth,
Devonshire collection, inv. 1030; Benesch 1973, vol. 6,
no. 1239). In both of the latter drawings Rembrandt has
depicted a richly varied area of foliage at the left, con-
taining considerable tonal range, and an open expanse of
water which takes up most of the remainder of the com-
position. In each case a carefully disposed form at the
right balances the composition, while distant, sensitively
rendered architectural forms appear on the far horizon.
The pen strokes are quite varied and change from thin,
rapid touches to broader strokes that lend emphasis to de-
tails of the foliage and the sail. The drawing is datable to
around 1650 and is exemplary of Rembrandt's mature
command of the integration of light, form, and atmo-
spheric suggestion, brought together within a rather
simple and classical composition.262 DUTCH SCHOOL • REMBRANDT