Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Download image: 
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
1606-1669
Indian Warrior with a Shield
ca. 1654-1656
Pen and brown ink and wash, with red chalk wash, black chalk and scraping (correction), on Japanese paper.
7 x 3 15/16 inches (178 x 100 mm); Richardson mount: 14 1/8 x 11 1/8 inches (357 x 283 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
I, 207
Notes: 

Watermark: none visible through lining with fiber optic light.
An album with 25 of Rembrandt's studies after Mughal miniatures was assembled in the first half of the 18th century by the English painter and collector Jonathan Richardson, Sr. Today at least 24 of these Richardson drawings, including Inv. nos. I-207 and I-208, are known; all are identified by the stamp of the collector's monogram, and all are executed on Japanese paper.

Inscription: 

Inscribed on the old Richardson mount, at upper left corner, in graphite, "11"; at lower center, in Richardson's hand, in brown ink, "Rembrandt"; in Esdaile's hand, at lower right of ornamental border, in brown ink, "WE", at lower left corner, in brown ink, "105x 1831x", above this, in graphite, "R", and at lower right corner, also in brown ink, "222"; and above this number, in another hand, in graphite, "10 178 [8 in superscript/ cd [cd in superscript]"; on the verso of this mount, at upper left, in graphite, "N L 59"; at lower center left, in graphite, "/" ; at lower left corner, in Esdaile's hand, in brown ink, "1831 WE N 105x"; below this, in another hand, in brown ink, "No [o in superscript]. 493"; and in lower right corner, in another hand, in graphite, "z: r / 5".

Provenance: 
Jonathan Richardson, Sr. (1665-1745), London (Lugt 2184; fragment of his pressmark on the verso of the mount, in brown ink, "19"; Lugt 2983-4); his sale, London, Mr. Cock, 22 January-8 February (actually Wednesday, 11 February), 1746-7 [sic], lot 70: "A book of Indian drawings, by Rembrandt, 25 in number"; unidentified 18th-century collector (similar, but not identical to Lugt S. 2986b); William Esdaile (1758-1837), London (Lugt 2617); his sale, London, Christie's, 18-25 June 1840, lot 1030: "A Persian with a Shield; fine" (to "Hodgson" for £0.11.0); Charles Sackville Bale (1791-1880), London (according to Fairfax Murray; no mark; see Lugt 640); his sale, London, Christie's, 9-14 June 1881, possibly lot 2432: "a whole-length Figure in Eastern Costume. From the Esdaile Collection" (to "Butler" for £2.12.6); Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.
Associated names: 

Richardson, Jonathan, 1665-1745, former owner.
Esdaile, William, 1758-1837, former owner.
Bale, Charles Sackville, 1791-1880, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, I, 207, repr.
Stampfle, Felice and Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann. Rembrandt Drawings from American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum; New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1960, no. 61, 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. 75, 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. 221.

School: 
Century: 
Classification: 
Department: