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Lot Essay
Frits Lugt identified the location of the present sheet with the help of a drawing by Furnerius (fig. 1), now at the Teylers Museum. Located on the northeast side of the city near a section of the harbour called St Anthonispoort, the bastion depicted here was destroyed as early as 1660 to make way for the Nieuwe Herengracht. Rembrandt sketched the view with his back to the bulwark called Rijzenhoofd, looking to the south-west toward the north side of the bulwark. The shadow of the trees on the path suggests that the drawing was executed in the afternoon of a summer's day.
To the right are the roofs of a rope-maker's factory which mainly supplied the Dutch East India Company. On the left are a mill and the chimney of the mill owner's house, hidden behind trees and a palisade. The mill, then used to grind grit, was of modern design with only the upper section rotating. The mill's tailpoles are clearly visible on the left. The sails of the mill are draped with canvas, indicating lack of wind.
The site was but a few minutes from Rembrandt's house. Yet he seems not to have drawn it more than once. Although it is close to Amsterdam's busiest area, the artist gives the impression of a rural scene. Two large trees occupy the center of the composition, a woman and child disappear into the distance, a man sits on the grassy verge of the path while another sits on a bench beside the path which runs round the bulwark.
The unity of composition is due to the warm tone of the prepared paper, washed with a large brush or even a sponge in a slightly ruddy hint. This technique combined with the supple use of the reed pen and quill suggests a date of between 1648 and 1652. Benesch dates the drawing around 1649-50 while Slive suggests about 1650. It has been proposed that the dramatic application of the preparation to the paper may well be Rembrandt's own. Another technical device, more marked than in De Rose (lot 114), is the scratching of the surface in some places to expose the whiter fibre of the paper underneath. This underlines the perspective and creates a contrast between the path and the sturdily drawn figure on the bench.
In the upper right corner is an unidentified collector's mark in pen, which has led some to believe that before Nicolaes Flinck had the chance of acquiring the sheet, it had belonged to another collector. The inscription on the verso is similar to that found on the recto of The cottage with a paling in the Rijksmuseum, P. Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt, Amsterdam, 1985, no. 30, illustrated.
To the right are the roofs of a rope-maker's factory which mainly supplied the Dutch East India Company. On the left are a mill and the chimney of the mill owner's house, hidden behind trees and a palisade. The mill, then used to grind grit, was of modern design with only the upper section rotating. The mill's tailpoles are clearly visible on the left. The sails of the mill are draped with canvas, indicating lack of wind.
The site was but a few minutes from Rembrandt's house. Yet he seems not to have drawn it more than once. Although it is close to Amsterdam's busiest area, the artist gives the impression of a rural scene. Two large trees occupy the center of the composition, a woman and child disappear into the distance, a man sits on the grassy verge of the path while another sits on a bench beside the path which runs round the bulwark.
The unity of composition is due to the warm tone of the prepared paper, washed with a large brush or even a sponge in a slightly ruddy hint. This technique combined with the supple use of the reed pen and quill suggests a date of between 1648 and 1652. Benesch dates the drawing around 1649-50 while Slive suggests about 1650. It has been proposed that the dramatic application of the preparation to the paper may well be Rembrandt's own. Another technical device, more marked than in De Rose (lot 114), is the scratching of the surface in some places to expose the whiter fibre of the paper underneath. This underlines the perspective and creates a contrast between the path and the sturdily drawn figure on the bench.
In the upper right corner is an unidentified collector's mark in pen, which has led some to believe that before Nicolaes Flinck had the chance of acquiring the sheet, it had belonged to another collector. The inscription on the verso is similar to that found on the recto of The cottage with a paling in the Rijksmuseum, P. Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt, Amsterdam, 1985, no. 30, illustrated.