School of, After Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

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1606-1669

Bust of an Old Man Gazing Downward: "Rembrandt's Father"

Pen and brown ink, with dark gray wash, over black chalk, on paper.

7 11/16 x 5 13/16 inches (195 x 148 mm)

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

I, 173

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Notes:

The subject is the type of bald-headed man with a spade beard represented in a number of Rembrandt's etchings and paintings of around 1630 and commonly identified as his father, the miller Harmen Gerritsz. van Rijn (1565-1630). What is now considered the most certain likeness of Rembrandt's father is the inscribed drawing in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the portraits of the present model are usually termed "tronies".

Inscription:

Inscribed on the verso, at lower left corner, in an old hand, in red chalk, "Rembrandt"; and below this, in graphite, "DRC".
Watermark: Horn with strap, in a crowned shield over letters "D I".

Provenance:

Sir Charles Greville (1763-1832), English officer (Lugt 549); George Guy, 4th Earl of Warwick (1818-93), Warwick Castle (Lugt 2600); his sale, London, Christie's, 20-21 May 1896, lot 315 (as attributed to Rembrandt): "Bust of an old man, stooping, probably by Van Vliet" (to Fairfax Murray for £5.5.0); 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:

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Associated names:

Greville, Charles, 1762-1832, former owner.
Warwick, George Guy Greville, Earl of, 1818-1893, 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, 173, repr. (as Rembrandt).
Jane Shoaf Turner, with contributions by Felice Stampfle, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 2006, cat. no. 134.

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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

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