118 Landscape with the House
with the Little Tower
Pen and brown ink and brown wash; H: 9.7 cm ( 3 3 /i6 in.)
W: 2i.5cm(8^7 /i6in.)
8s.GA.36 3
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: Paul Jodot, Paris; Otto Gutekunst, Lon
don; Baron Robert von Hirsch, Basel (sale, Sotheby's
London, June 21, 1978, lot 35); art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Exhibition of Dutch Art 1450-1900, Roya
Academy of Arts, London, 1929, no. 62 4 (catalogue b
D. Hannema et al.). Rembrandt Tentoonstelling, Rijks
museum, Amsterdam, 1932, no. 282 (catalogue by F
Schmidt-Degener). Seventeenth Century Art in Europ
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1938, no. 56 4 (cata
logue of drawings by A. E. Popham et al.). Rembmndt
Ausstellung, Katz-Galerie, Basel, 1948, no. 33 (catalogu
by W. Martin et al.). Lepaysage hollandais au XVIIe siecl
Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, 1950-1951, no. 154 bi
(catalogue by L. C.J. Frerichsetal.). Rembrandt: Tentoon
stelling ter herdenking van degeboorte van Rembrandt op i$jul- Tekeningen, Museum Boyrnans-van Beuningen
Rotterdam, and Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, May
August and August-October 1956, no. 162 (catalogue b
E. Haverkamp-Begemann).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Vasari Society for the Reproduction o
Drawings by Old Masters, 2nd ser., pt. 5 (1924), no. 10
A. M. Hind, Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition o
Dutch Art, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London
1930, p. 210; idem, "A Landscape Drawing by Rem
brandt," British Museum Quarterly 7, no. 3 (1932-1933)
p. 63; M. Freeman, Rembrandt van Rijn 1606-69, Maste
Draughtsmen, no. 4 (London and New York, 1933), no
6 ; O. Benesch, Rembrandt: Werk und Forschung (Vienna
!935) 5 P- 48; idem, Rembrandt: Selected Drawings (Lon
don, 1947), vol. i, pp. 25-26, no. 177; 37; J. G. va
Gelder, "Review of Otto Benesch, Rembrandt, Selecte
Drawings," Burlington Magazine 91, no. 556 (July 1949)
p. 207; L. Miinz, A Critical Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etch
ings (London, 1952), vol. 2, p. 85, under no. 168; J. Q
van Regteren Altena, "Retouches aan ons Rembrandt
beeld, Het landschap van den goudweger," Oud Hollan
69, no. i (1954), pp. 1-17; O. Benesch, The Drawings o
Rembrandt (London, 1957), vol. 6, no. 1267, fig. 1494
idem, Rembrandt as a Draughtsman (London, 1960), p
155; C. White, Rembrandt as an Etcher (London, 1969)
vol. i, p. 212; idem and K. G. Boon, Rembrandt's Etch
; - , l y -.e,
e
e,
s - i , - y f ; f , - , r. , - n d , -. - d f ;. , -
ings: A New Critical Catalogue (Amsterdam, 1969), p.
108, under no. 6223; O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rem-
brandt (London, 1973), vol. 6, no. 1267, fig. 1564; M.
Bernhard, Rembrandt: Handzeichnungen (Munich, 1976),
vol. 2, pi. 439; B. Haak, Rembrandt Drawings (New York,
1976), no. 62.THIS WELL-KNOWN DRAWING REPRESENTS THE HOUSE
known as Het Toorentje, which belonged at the time to
Jan Uytenbogaert, receiver general of the United Prov-
inces (van Regteren Altena 1954, pp. 1-17). The site is
located along the Schinckel River between Amsterdam
and Amstelveen. As was first noted by Hind (1932-1933,
p. 63), the same spot is depicted in an etching, Landscape
with Trees, Farm Buildings and a Tower (6.223), which has
been dated by White and Boon (1969, p. 107) to circa
1651. The print shows the house from a different vantage
point, and Rembrandt appears to have taken greater lib-
erties with topographical accuracy in it than in the draw-
ing, removing the cupola of the tower in the third state.
The drawing also has been related stylistically to the art-
ist's famous print The Goldweigher's Field (6.234), dated
1651 (Benesch 1973, vol. 6, no. 1267), and there are many
similarities in the characterization of the screen of trees
and houses as well as in the overall composition and qual-
ity of light and atmosphere. The analogy between the
drawing and this print provides a clear basis for dating
the former to the beginning of the 16505.
The technique of the drawing is astonishing, even
by Rembrandt's standard. A row of trees and houses is
set slightly above the middle of the sheet, providing for
an open expanse of space in the foreground. The sug-
gestion of river and land separating the viewer from the
house and trees has been achieved with a few broad lines
and numerous finer strokes depicting the rushes at left
and their reflections in the river. The main lines of the
foreground meit at a point directly below the tower. It
and the surrounding houses and trees were first drawn in
fine, short strokes, and then wash was added before the
ink had dried, creating a blurred and luminous effect
(White 1969, vol. i, p. 212). Rembrandt further ani-
mated this part of the scene by using a fine dotting tech-
nique, adding to the sense of movement of form and di-
versity of texture. The endless subtlety of technique is
nowhere better seen than in the passage of dots and wash
at the left which leads into the far distance. Benesch
(1973, vol. 6, no. 1267) has proposed that the technique
employed here was inspired by Bruegel, while
L. Hendrix has noted the similarity (in both technique
and characterization of landscape) between it and several
late landscape drawings made near Haarlem by Goltzius.^1264 DUTCH SCHOOL • REMBRANDT