The Holy Family at Night

The Holy Family at Night

SK-A-4119

• inscription: ‘Margriet Six’
• signature

De schaduw van zijn grootmoeder torent uit boven het vredig slapende kindje Jezus. Zijn moeder leest rustig ene boek. Het intieme huiselijke tafereel wordt slechts door een enkele lichtbron belicht. Dit thema werd in de jaren 1640 vaker uitgebeeld in Rembrandts atelier. Het sterke licht-donkercontrast is typerend voor de meester. Toch is dit schilderij niet van zijn hand. Het werd waarschijnlijk door een van zijn leerlingen geschilderd.

Rijksmuseum Kunstkrant, 7 (maart 1981) nr. 8

painter: workshop of Rembrandt van Rijn

c. 1642 - c. 1648

olieverf op paneel

height 66.5 cm x width 78 cm

Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Prins Bernhard Fonds and the Stichting tot Bevordering van de Belangen van het Rijksmuseum

purchase 1965

Public domain

? Collection Jan Six (1618-1700) and Margaretha Tulp (1632-1709), Amsterdam; ? their daughter Margaretha Six (1666-1718), Amsterdam;{An old inscription in ink on the reverse of the panel reads `Margrita Six´. Van de Wetering et al. 2011, pp. 387-8 identifies her as the daughter of Jan Six and Margaretha Tulp, who may, therefore, have been the original owners.} …; collection Philippe Duc d´Orléans (1674-1723), Cabinet du lit jaune, Palais Royal, Paris, as Rembrandt, by 1720;{Richardson 1722, p. 21 (`A Woman reading to her Mother, while the Old Woman nods in, rocking the Cradle, where her Grandchild sleeps: The same Size as the finish´d Drawing my father has, and exactly the same, as far a Drawing and Picture can be. All the good properties of a Picture (of this subject) are here in a very high Degree, and some as high as one can conceive `t is possible to raise them. They are plain People, and in a Cottage; and Nature and Humour must be instead of Grace and Greatness; the Expression is exquisite; the Colouring warm, and transparent; a vast number of Parts put together with utmost Harmony; and for the Clair-Obscure it may stand in Competition with the Notte of Correggio, or any other picture.´ Richardson would have seen the painting in 1720 when he was in France before going on to Italy.} his sale, Paris (D´Argenson), 9 June 1727, p. 11, as Rembrandt (`Un Vieillard, une Femme & un Enfant au berceau sujet de nuit. Toille. Hauteur 1 pied 10 pouces. Largeur 2 pied 4 pouces [59.5 x 75.8 cm]´), unsold; by descent to his great-grandson, Louis Philippe Joseph d´Orléans (1747-93), known as Philippe Égalité, Paris and Château du Raincy; from whom purchased with the other Dutch and Flemish paintings in the Orléans collection through the mediation of Thomas Moore Slade, by Lord Kinniard, Mr Morland and Mr Hammersley, 1792 and exhibited for sale at 125 Pall Mall, London, April 1793;{Buchanan 1824, I, pp. 159-65; London 1793, no. 34 (`Cradle by Rembrandt´)}; from whom, 1,000 gns, to Richard Payne Knight (1750-1824), Downton Castle, Herefordshire;{Buchanan 1824, I, p. 196.} by descent to William Mandeville Peareth Kincaid Lennox (1892-1969), with Downton Castle, Herefordshire; from whom, £ 610,000, through the dealer Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, to the museum, with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Prins Bernhard Fonds and the Fotocommissie; on loan to Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 2011-14

• Rijksmuseum Kunstkrant, 7 (maart 1981) nr. 8
• J. Rosenberg, 'Die Rembrandt-Ausstellung in Holland', Kunstchronik, 9 (1956), p. 347
• Annual report : Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (1999), p. 19-20 met afb.
• P. Hecht, 'Een topstuk in de hoek gezet', Kunstschrift (1994) nr. 1, p. 2, 3.
• Gazette des Beaux Arts, LXVII (feb. 1966), p. 85 (afgeb. als aanwinst voor het Rijksmuseum)
• Apollo, the Orléans Collection (mei 1984), p. 361, 362 ("The Cradle")
• P.J.J. van Thiel, 'Rembrandts Heilige Familie bij avond', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum (1965), p. 143
• X. de Salas, 'Rembrandt', Goya Revista de Arte,15 (nov-dec. 1956), p. 144
• J. Richardson Jr., An Account of Some of the Statues, Bas-reliefs, Drawings, and Paintings in Italy, etc., London 1722, p. 21
• D. Sutton, 'Robert Langton Douglas, Agent for the Metropolitan Museum', Apollo CX (juni 1979), p. 412, 413, 414, afb. 3 ("The Cradle")
• E.R. Meijer, 'Rembrandt en Cuyp', Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant, (18 sept. 1965)
• B. Bakker, 'De nieuwe Rembrandt in het Rijksmuseum', De Kroniek van de Vriendenkring van het Rembrandthuis, 19 (31 oktober 1965) nr. 5, p. 96-102
• The Rembrandt Database, Object information, studio ofatelier vanRembrandt, The holy family at night, c. 1645, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-A-4119, http://www.rembrandtdatabase.org/Rembrandt/painting/2934/the-holy-family-at-night, accessed 2016 February 01
• Jan Veth, Rembrandts leven en kunst, Amsterdam 1946 [2e druk], p. 138.
• A. von Wurzbach, Rembrandt-Galerie, 1886, afb. 157 (repr. van de gravure door Guttenberg)

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200107943