ATTIRBUTED TO BARENT FABRITIUS (Middenbeemster 1624-1673 Amsterdam)

According to an inscription on an old photograph, this sheet was given to Constantijn Daniel van Renesse in a letter from Werner Sumowski from 1962. Furthermore, the inscription states that the attribution was confirmed by Horst Gerson (1964) and Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann (1975), although the latter also suggested an attribution to Samuel van Hoogstraten. However, while Van Renesse did draw models in a similar fashion (see for example W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, New York, 1985, IX, nos. 2182-2186, ill.), Peter Schatborn recently pointed out that the sheet finds a particularly close comparison with a drawing attributed to Barent Fabritius in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick (Sumowski, op. cit., IV, no. 856, ill.). The model looks strikingly similar to the one in the present sheet and the style is similar too. The sketch on the verso is perhaps a quick thought for a composition similar to that seen in the background of Christ and the Emmaus Pilgrims in front of the Inn, Klassik Stiftung Weimar (Sumowski, op. cit., no. 830a, ill.). The fact that the inscription is in German, however, could also indicate that it was drawn by another hand.

We are grateful to Peter Schatborn and Martin Royalton-Kisch for their assistance in cataloguing this drawing.