Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
1606-1669
Three Studies of Women, Each Holding a Child; Head of a Man
ca. 1639
Pen and brown ink on paper darkened to a brown tone.
7 3/8 x 5 13/16 inches (188 x 147 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
I, 190
Inscription: 

Inscribed on the verso, at lower left, in Esdaile's hand, in brown ink, "1835 WE and Rembrandt".
Watermark: Flail within a chaplet (similar to Churchill, no. 544: 1640), fragment.

Provenance: 
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), London (Lugt 2445); William Esdaile (1758-1837), London (Lugt 2617); his sale, London Christie's, 18-25 June 1840, lot 6: "A Mother and child - studies" (with lot 5 to Woodburn for £0.12.0); Samuel Woodburn (1786-1853), London (no mark; see Lugt 2584); Lawrence-Woodburn sale, London, Christie's, 4-8 June 1860, lot 757: "A sheet of studies of females with children - bistre pen" (to Morant for £1.18.0); possibly George J. Morant (fl. c. 1860-65), Hayling, Hampshire, and London (no mark; see Lugt 1823); 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.
Watermark: 
Associated names: 

Lawrence, Thomas, Sir, 1769-1830, former owner.
Esdaile, William, 1758-1837, former owner.
Woodburn, Samuel, 1785 or 1786-1853 former owner.
Morant, George J., active approximately 1860-65, 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, 190, repr.
Stampfle, Felice and Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann. Rembrandt Drawings from American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum; New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1960, no. 20, 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. 209.

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