Inscribed on the verso, at upper edge, in light brown ink, "·15·K-N 12·53(crossed out) ]/"; at left, in graphite, 5355/5 ["5355" in superscript above the subscript "5"]; and at center, in an old hand, in black chalk, "Z.8".
Stampfle, Felice and Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann. Rembrandt Drawings from American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum; New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1960, no. 14, repr.
Stampfle, Felice. Rubens and Rembrandt in Their Century : Flemish and Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century from The Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1979, no. 14, repr.
Jane Shoaf Turner, with contributions by Felice Stampfle, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 2006, cat. no. 204.
Watermark: none visible through lining.
The head of the old man in the ornate fur hat is found towering above those of his two companions in the center foreground of the grisaille painting, "Preaching of John the Baptist" in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, which is usually dated c. 1634-5. Three other pen-and-ink studies by Rembrandt for the Berlin painting are preserved, two in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, and one in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth House. There is a fifth preparatory drawing executed in red chalk, in the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, which contains two studies for the figure of the Baptist.
This drawing and nos. I, 174b, I, 174c, I, 174d, and I, 174e have apparently been mounted together on one mat since at least 1908.
Riggall, Edward, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.