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Brown ink drawing of a couple in the center near a mountainous landscape with cattle and people around.

The man (Jacob) wraps his arms around the woman (Rachel) as he looks into her face. She stands on the left, her arms are at her side, holding a staff in her right hand. Rachel wears a long dress and large flat brimmed hat; Jacob is in a coat with boots and canteen on his hip. The background of sketched lines depicts a rocky landscape on the right, sloping down to the left where we see cattle, horses, probably farmland. A couple stands in the midground on a rock to the right looking at the embracing couple in the center.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2008.253
People
Ferdinand Bol, Dutch (Dordrecht 1616 - 1680 Amsterdam)
Title
Jacob and Rachel
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1645-1650
Culture
Dutch
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/199104

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Brown ink, brown wash and white opaque watercolor on cream antique laid paper, partial framing line in places with gold border, mounted
Dimensions
16.8 x 27.1 cm (6 5/8 x 10 11/16 in.)
mount: 23 x 33 cm (9 1/16 x 13 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: verso, top center, graphite: Idyll of Theocritus
  • inscription: verso, top center, brown ink, pen, Greek: several lines in Greek, from Theocritus
  • collector's mark: lower left, black ink, stamp: L. 2364 (Sir Joshua Reynolds)
  • collector's mark: lower right, black ink, stamp: L. 2170 (Jonathan Richardson)
  • collector's mark: lower right, black ink, stamp: L. 119 (Ambroise Firmin-Didot)
  • inscription: mount, verso, lower left, blue ink, stamp: Duveen Br.
  • inscription: verso, lower center, graphite: 1>C/5
  • inscription: verso, lower right, graphite, French: Collections- Richardson / Reynolds et Didot
  • label: mount, verso, upper right: f [secondary mark] 3
  • label: verso, mount, upper right, oblong label with black ink inscription: 3.
  • watermark: none visible

    Beta will not be made. No watermark is visible; mount is too thick. Strong light and raking light did not reveal a watermark.
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, printed label, upper right, red ink: 62074
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, upper right, graphite: CCW
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, upper center, graphite: [illegible series of words, crossed out]
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, upper center, graphite: Gdw 19 B bL
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, typed label, center: 3. / THE IDYLL OF THEOCRITUS. / From the Collections of Sir / Joshua Reynolds, Jonathan Rich- / ardson and Ambrose Firmin-Didot.
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, typed label, lower right: G 759 REMBRANDT / JACOB AND RACHEL
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, circular label with blue ink inscription, lower left, upside down: 10.
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, label inscribed with brown ink, lower left: Right of - / centre window
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, label with graphite, lower left: 8.
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, graphite, lower center, upside down: CA5642
  • inscription: Former mount, now in the possession of HAM, lower left, black ink, hand of George Abrams: JONATHAN RICHARDSON, JR / LUGT 2170 / SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS LUGT 2364 / A. FIRMIN-DIDOT, PARIS LUGT 2364 / R. KAHN, PARIS (VALLONTINA #78) / FRAU A. HAMILTON RICE, NEWPORT / DR. A. HAMILTON RICE, NEWPORT / LOUIS H. SILVER, CHICAGO / ROBERT LEHMAN, N.Y. / ROBIN LEHMAN, PARIS / SUMOFSKI [sic], NO. 260 / WESRI [sic], 1944, P. 105 / PIGLER, 1956, I, P. 61
  • collector's mark: mount, verso: L. 3306 (Maida and George Abrams)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Jonathan Richardson, Jr., London (L. 2170 with his mark). Joshua Reynolds, London (L. 2364 with his mark). Ambroise Firmin Didot, Paris (L. 119 with his mark). Rodolphe Kann, Paris. Duveen Brothers, New York (with their mark). Mrs. Alexander Hamilton Rice, Newport and New York. Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Louis H. Silver, Chicago. [Knoedler and Company, New York]. Robert Lehman, New York. Robin Lehman, New York. James Kirkman, London. Maida and George Abrams, Boston, 1979 (L. 3306, mount, verso); The Maida and George Abrams Collection.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
The Maida and George Abrams Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Accession Year
2008
Object Number
2008.253
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • William R. Valentiner, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, E. Weyhe Gallery and Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (New York and Stuttgart, Germany, 1925), vol. 1, repr. p. 77, fig. 78
  • William R. Valentiner, Rembrandt; des Meisters Handzeichnungen, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (Stuttgart, Germany, 1925), vol. 1, repr. p. 77, fig. 78
  • Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt [enlarged ed.], Phaidon Press (Oxford, 1973), vol. 4, cat. no. C46, p. 223
  • Andor Pigler, Barockthemen: Eine Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, zweite Erweiterte Auflage, Akadémiai Kiadó (Budapest, 1974), vol. 1, p. 66 (as Rembrandt)
  • Werner Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, ed. Walter Strauss, Abaris Books (New York, NY, 1979), vol. 1, cat. no. 260x, p. 544, repr. p. 545
  • William W. Robinson, "[Review] Werner Sumoski: Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vols. 1-3", Master Drawings (Autumn 1982), vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 280-285, p. 284
  • William W. Robinson, Seventeenth-Century Dutch Drawings: A Selection from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat., H. O. Zimman, Inc. (Lynn, MA, 1991), cat. no. 45, pp. 108-9, repr. p. 109
  • Martin Royalton-Kisch, "Rembrandt's Landscape Drawings", Drawing: Masters and Methods, Raphael to Redon, Philip Wilson Publishers / Royal Academy of Arts (London, 1992), pp. 114-135, p. 134, repr. 130, fig. 42
  • Jane Turner and Felice Stampfle, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library, Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, 2006), vol. 1, p. 164, under cat. no. 243
  • Peter C. Sutton and William W. Robinson, Drawings by Rembrandt, his Students and Circle from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat., Bruce Museum and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2011), cat. no. 24, pp. 28, 86-7, repr.

Exhibition History

  • Seventeenth-Century Dutch Drawings: A Selection from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 02/23/1991 - 04/18/1991; Albertina Gallery, Vienna, 05/16/1991 - 06/30/1991; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 01/22/1992 - 04/22/1992; Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/10/1992 - 12/06/1992
  • Abrams 50th reunion exhibition, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/2004 - 06/14/2004
  • Drawings by Rembrandt, his Students and Circle from the Collection of Maida and George Abrams, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, 09/24/2011 - 01/08/2012; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 04/15/2012 - 07/08/2012

Subjects and Contexts

  • Dutch, Flemish, & Netherlandish Drawings

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu