CIRCLE OF REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (LEIDEN 1606-1669 AMSTERDAM)

The sleeping figure of Jacob in the present work can be compared with the same figure in a drawing variously attributed to Rembrandt or an artist in his studio and datable to circa 1650 in the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (see E. Bock and J. Rosenberg, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Die Niederländischen Meister, Berlin, 1930, p. 221, no. 2696). A second drawing by Rembrandt, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. RF 4718), of a sleeping figure datable to approximately the same time may also have provided inspiration for the figure of Jacob. A highly comparable painting by Rembrandt's pupil Gerbrand van den Eeckhout dated 1669 is in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (see W. Sumowski, op. cit., II, pp. 741, 832, no. 469, illustrated).