121 Shahjahan and Dara Shikoh
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, and white gouache
heightening on Japanese paper; H: 21.2 cm (8^3 /s in.); W:- 9 cm (7 in.)
8s.GA.4 4
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left, collection
mark of Thomas Hudson (L. 2432); at bottom right, col-
lection mark of Jonathan Richardson, Sr. (L. 2184); on
mount, at bottom, inscribed Rembrandt in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Jonathan Richardson, Sr., London (sale,
Cock, London, February n, 1747, lot 70); Thomas Hud-
son, London; R. F. Symonds, London (sale, Sotheby's,
London, May 10, 1961, lot 33); private collection, New
Jersey; art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: O. Benesch, "Neuentdeckte Zeichnun-
gen von Rembrandt," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 5
(1963), pp. 135-136, 138; idem, Rembrandt, Collected
Writings, vol. i (London, 1970), pp. 262, 289, n. 25;
idem, The Drawings of Rembrandt (London, 1973), vol.
5, no. H94A, fig. 1498; P. Lunsingh Scheurleer, "Mogol-
miniaturen door Rembrandt nagetekend," De kroniek
van het Rembrandthuis 32 (1980-1981), pp. 34-36; P.
Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt in the Rijksmuseum,
His Anonymous Pupils and Followers, Catalogue of the
Dutch and Flemish Drawings in the Rijksprentenkabi-
net, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, vol. 4 (The Hague,
1985), p. 131, n. n, under nos. 57-60.THE 1747 AUCTION CATALOGUE OF THE COLLECTION
of Jonathan Richardson, Sr., lists "A book of Indian
drawings by Rembrandt, 25 in number." This is one of
the series, of which twenty-one apparently are known,
including those in Benesch (1973, vol. 5, nos. 1187-
1197, 1199-1201, 1203-1206), one in the Aall collection,
New York, and another in a private collection,
Paris. They were all drawn on Japanese paper, but are of
differing sizes and vary in the number of figures shown
and manner of representation, with some shown only in
bust length. Since F. Sarre,^1 it has been recognized that
they all were based on Mogul miniatures of Rembrandt's
time, and it has often been thought that the models were
identical to the "album of curious miniature drawings"
listed in the inventory of his possessions made in i656.^2
These miniatures have been connected to a group of
Mogul paintings in Schloss Schonbrunn, near Vienna.^3
However, considerable doubt has been cast on the iden-tification of these pictures as Rembrandt's models, and P.
Lunsingh Scheurleer (1980-1981, pp. 34-35, fig. 23) has
pointed to a miniature in the Royal Library, Teheran, that
is much closer to the Museum's drawing than the com-
posite of two figures in Schonbrunn, first cited in the
Sotheby's catalogue (1961, lot 33) and accepted by Be-
nesch as the models (1963, p. 135).
The two figures depicted in the drawing are iden-
tified in the Sotheby's catalogue as Shahjahan and his fal-
coner, a view again adopted by Benesch. Lunsingh
Scheurleer has improved upon this hypothesis by noting
that the figure at the right is Dara Shikoh (1615-1659),
the eldest and most beloved son of Shahjahan. The same
scholar has noted that from the time of the reign of Shah
Jahangir (1605-1627), Shahjahan's father, Mogul rulers
were portrayed with aureoles, a derivation from Western
usage (1980-1981, p. 13).
This and related drawings in the series are, as has
often been noted, more than mere copies. Rembrandt has
taken the imagery of Mogul miniatures and depicted it
in his own style and technique, enlivening the figures and
heightening the naturalism of their forms and expres-
sions. Only in their extremely fine graphic manner do
they suggest the influence of their source, though their
imagery continued to have an impact on Rembrandt's
rendering of other themes after this project was com-
pleted. He seems to have drawn the series for his own
pleasure. Benesch s dating of these copies after Mogul
miniatures to circa 1654-1656 (1973, vol. 5, no. 1187) ap-
pears to be correct.- "Rembrandts Zeichnungen nach indisch-islamischen Mini-
aturen," Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen 25 (1904),
pp. 143-158. - W. L. Strauss et al., The Rembrandt Documents (New York,
1979), no. 1656/12, no. 203. - J. Strzygowski and H. Gliick, Asiatische Miniaturenmalerei
(Klagenfurt, 1933), pp. 18-21.
270 DUTCH SCHOOL • REMBRANDT