REMBRANDT VAN RIJN
1606-1669
i oj An Artist in a Studio
Pen and brown ink; H: 20.5 cm (8Vio in.); W: 17 cm
(6 "Xioin.)
86.GA.Ó7 5 (SEE PLATE 12)
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: at bottom left corner, col-
lection mark of Edward Bouverie (L. 325); at bottom
right corner, inscribed as follows in brown ink:^1
#V
PROVENANCE: Edward Bouverie, Delapré Abbey, near
Northampton (sale, Christie's, London, July 20, 1859,
lot 124); Lewis Huth Walters; Dr. and Mrs. Francis
Springell, Portinscale, Cumberland (sale, Sotheby's,
London, June 30, 1986, lot 41).
EXHIBITIONS: Old Master Drawings from the Collection of
Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, National Gallery of Scot-
land, Edinburgh, July- September 1965, no. 4 2 (cata-
logue by K. Andrews); Loan Exhibition of Drawings by
Old Masters from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Springell,
P. and D. Colnaghi, London, October-November
1959 , no. 42; Bij Rembrandt in de Leer, Museum het Rem-
brandthuis, Amsterdam, October 1984 -January 1985 ,
no. 9 (catalogue by P. Schatborn and E. Ornstein-van
Slooten).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. M. Hind, "Rembrandt in His Stu-
dio," Old Master Drawings i (June 1926), p. 9; O. Be-
nesch, Rembrandt: WerkundForschung (Vienna, 1935); 2nd
ed. (Lucerne, 1970), p. 28; idem, Rembrandt: Selected
Drawings (Oxford and London, 1947), p. 21, no. 33;
idem, The Drawings of Rembrandt (London, 1954), vol. 2,
p. 89, no. 390; W. Sumowski, Bemerkungen zu Otto Be-
neschs Corpus der Rembrandtzeichnungen II (Bad Pyrmont,
1961), p. 6; S. Slive, "Rembrandt's 'Self-Portrait in a Stu-
dio,' " Burlington Magazine 106, no. 740 (November
1964), p. 485 ; E. van de Wetering, "Leidse Schilders Ach-
ter de Ezels," in Geschildert tot Ley den Anno 1626, exh. cat.
(Stedelijk Museum "De Lakenhal," Leiden, 1976), pp.
26-31; F. Stampfle, Rubens and Rembrandt in Their Cen-
tury, exh. cat. (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York,
1980), p. loo, under no. 68; J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings I 1625-1631 (The Hague, Boston,
and London, 1982), p. 211, under no. A 18; P. Bonafoux,
Rembrandt: Self-Portrait (New York, 1985), no pagina-
tion; S. Alpers, Rembrandt's Enterprise: The Studio and the
Market (Chicago, 1988), p. 59; H. P. Chapman, Rem-
brandt's Self-Portraits: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Iden-
tity (Princeton, 1990), pp. 85; 158, n. 29; E. van der Wet-
ering, "Rembrandt's Manner: Technique in the Service
of Illusion," in Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop.
Paintings (Altes Museum, Berlin, and other institutions,
1991), p. 29, fig. 39.HlND (1926) FIRST PUBLISHED THIS DRAWING AS BY
Rembrandt and dated it to circa 1627-30. He associated
it with the Leiden- period painting of circa 1629, The Art-
ist in His Studio (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts), con-
cluding that the drawing, like the painting, contained a
self-portrait of the artist. Benesch, who initially placed
the drawing circa 1637-39 (1935, p. 28), revised this dat-
ing to 1632-33. Supporting Benesch is the similarity to
drawings of the early to later 16305 (Louvre inv. RF4674;
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen inv. R 17, R 4; Rijks-
museum inv. 1930:22). More recently, E. van de Weter-
ing has connected the drawing and Boston painting to
contemporary debates in art theory, arguing that the art-
ist in the drawing is not a self-portrait but rather Rem-
brandt's Leiden colleague Jan Lievens.^2
What have yet to be discussed are the conspicuous
perspective lines in the drawing. Centering on a point
just beyond the right margin, they were drawn from the
top portion of the easel and bottom of the right front leg
and extend from multiple positions along the chair,
grinding stone, and turpentine canister hanging from the
painting. These lines, which are certainly autograph,
were made after the objects were delineated in the draw-
ing and verify the more or less correct spatial construc-
tion, which was arrived at intuitively. The pentimenti and
reinforcing lines at the bases of the legs of the easel and
chair indicate that some experimentation was required
before the objects were properly situated relative to one
another. The central feature of this configuration is the
easel with its painting, which was drawn first and which
generated the vanishing point. It determined not only the
position of solids relative to it but also the greater space
of the studio, whose soaring height echoes the arched240 DUTCH SCHOOL • REMBRANDT