Lot 73: PHILIPS KONINCK AMSTERDAM 1619 - 1688

Bears signature, lower right: Rimbrand
Pen and brown ink and wash, within brown ink framing lines
Inv. nr. N 207

128 by 153 mm.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, De verzameling van Bernard Houthakker, 1964, cat. no. 43 (as possibly a biblical scene);
Amsterdam/Dordrecht 1994-5, cat. no. 13

H. Gerson, Philips Koninck, Berlin 1935, pp. 79, 160, cat. no. Z 227, reproduced plate 51 (as an inn scene);
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. 6, New York 1982, no. 1390^x, reproduced (as a biblical scene)

Bears unknown collector's mark (L.2925);
John MacGowan (L.1496);
John Lord Northwick, his sale, London, Sotheby's, 1-4 November 1920, lot 183 (as Attributed to Rembrandt, Three Old Men Talking);
Purchased at that sale by Bernard Houthakker (L.1272, and with the remains of his mount), his sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 17-18 November 1975, lot 69 (as Philips Koninck, Seated and Standing Figures in discussion in an interior)

As is clear from the various titles given to this drawing on its appearances in exhibitions and sales, the precise subject represented is unclear, and even whether it is biblical or secular. The early attribution to Rembrandt was corrected by Gerson in 1935 (see Literature), since when the drawing's authorship has been unquestioned. It is a particularly fine example of Koninck's more restrained and Rembrandtesque draughtsmanship, demonstrating all the energy of handling and robust characterisation typical of the artist, without the rather coarse, sometimes almost clumsy handling that creeps into many of his later genre scenes. Gerson (loc. cit.) suggested the drawing should probably be dated before 1660, and Sumowski (loc. cit.) concurred, proposing, more specifically, a dating of circa 1655-8.