Watermark: Countermark with letters, P(L)B

Light foxing throughout¹¹Typical of most drawings formerly in the collection of Hofstede de Groot, which at some point during his ownership were stored in unfavourably damp conditions.

…; collection Freiherr Karl Eduard von Liphart (1808-91), Tartu, Bonn and Florence; by descent to Freiherr Reinhold von Liphart (1864-1940), Rathshof, near Tartu (L. 1758); sale, Freiherr Karl Eduard von Liphart (1808-91, Tartu, Bonn and Florence), Leipzig (C.G. Boerner), 26 April 1898 sqq., no. 480, as Samuel van Hoogstraten (‘Die Verkündigung an der Hirten. Geistreiche Skizze in Sepia’), 21 DM, to Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague;²²Hofstede de Groot notes, KB. by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930

Object number: RP-T-1930-21

Credit line: Gift of C. Hofstede de Groot, The Hague

After Rembrandt drew an Annunciation to the Shepherds as a vertical scene about 1650 (inv. no. RP-T-1930-20), he depicted it again in a horizontal format. The angel now appears on the left, as in an etching of 1634 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1962-19),³³B. 44; New Hollstein: Rembrandt, no. 125. and two of the three shepherds are kneeling and the third lets go of his staff, a motif that also appears in the etching. The figure partially visible behind the low hill at the centre raises his hands in the air, just as in the other drawn version. Here, however, the animals seem oblivious to the appearance of the angel: the sheep do not flee, but remain lying on the ground, and on the right a cow looks dimly the other way.

The handling of line is more regular, somewhat less sketchy than in the other drawing. Of the angel, only his head and hands are delineated – the rest of the figure is scarcely represented. The high mountains have also been very sketchily rendered with a series of short strokes. The figures and animals are set off against lightly shaded passages of fine, parallel hatching. In the hut on the left, the dark areas of shadow are increased by rubbing the ink, which was then partially covered with opaque white.

Compared to the 1634 etching and the vertical drawn rendering of the Annunciation, the horizontal composition is much calmer, with a less dramatic reaction of the shepherds and animals to the appearance of the angel. This suggests that it should be dated later than the other drawing, to about 1655.

Peter Schatborn, 2017

C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1267 (c. 1650); W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Die Meisters Handzeichnungen, 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, I (1925), no. 291 (c. 1655); M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de Nederlandsche teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, I: Teekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn school, coll. cat. The Hague 1942, no. 65 (c. 1653); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 1023 (1656-57); P. Schatborn, Catalogus van de Nederlandse tekeningen in het Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, IV: Tekeningen van Rembrandt, zijn onbekende leerlingen en navolgers/Drawings by Rembrandt, his Anonymous Pupils and Followers, coll. cat. The Hague 1985, no. 44, with earlier literature; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 98 and 100, fig. 96

P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, Annunciation to the Shepherds, Amsterdam, c. 1655 - 1655', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200117993