104 Study of a Man Talking to a
Woman Seated on the Left
Pen and brown ink; H: 10 cm (3I5/i6 in.); W: 10 cm
(3I5/i6in.)
87.GA.2I
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) collection mark of
Jacob de Vos Jbzn. (L. 1450).
PROVENANCE: Jacob de Vos Jbzn., Amsterdam; Ehlers
collection, Gôttingen (sale, Boerner's, Leipzig, May 9-
10, 1930, lot 342); private collection, New York; art mar-
ket, London.
EXHIBITIONS: Kate de Rothschild: Exhibition of Old Master
Drawings, Alan Jacobs Gallery, London, June-July 1985,
no. 35.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: O. Benesch, Rembrandt: Werk una For-
schung (Vienna, 1935); 2nd ed. (Lucerne, 1970), pp. 27;
108, n. 3); idem, The Drawings of Rembrandt (London,
1954), vol. i, p. 47, no. 177; H.-M. Rotermund, "Uni-
dentifizierte bzw. misverstandene Zeichnungen Rem-
brandts zu biblischen Szenen," Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch
2 i (1959), pp. 179-80; idem, Rembrandts Handzeichnun-
gen unà Radierungen zur Bibel (Schwarzwald, 1963); En-
glish ed. (Philadelphia, 1963), pp. 95, 130, no. 92; J.
Nieuwstraten, "Review of Hans-Martin Rotermund,
Rembrandts Handzeichnungen unà Radierungen zur Bibel"
Oud Holland 53, no. i (1965), p. 61; O. Benesch, The
Drawings of Rembrandt (London and New York, 1973),
vol. i, p. 49, no. 177.
IN THIS DRAWING AN ELDERLY BEARDED MAN ASCENDS
a stairway, turning to direct stern remarks to a woman
who looks up at him plaintively. Although only a brief
sketch, it demonstrates considerable dramatic power.
Rembrandt most fully worked out the faces of the figures
and the torso and hands of the man, summarily indicat-
ing the lower portions of the forms. The man's protrud-
ing knee and the heavy strokes reinforcing his left foot
suggest his movement up the steps, thereby conveying a
sense of physical vitality which complements the psy-
chological energy of the figures. The most convincing
interpretation of the scene is that it represents an early
eventinthestory of Samuel (i Samuel 1:14-15) when the
high priest Eli scolds Hannah, who prays in distress out-
side the temple (Rotermund 1959). Benesch dated the
drawing to circa 1638-39 (1954, 1973), butM. Royalton-
Kisch and P. Schatborn placed it more convincingly circa
1635-3 6 (AlanJacobs Gallery 1985, no. 35), as suggested
by its similarity to two sheets in the Rijksmuseum, The
Pancake Woman and Studies of the Magdalen and the Virgin
in Sorrow (inv. A 2424, 1947:213).REMBRANDT • DUTCH SCHOOL 243