Old Man Seated (The Drunken Lot?), Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Old Man Seated (The Drunken Lot?)
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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Old Man Seated (The Drunken Lot?), ca. 1630 – 1633


Blatt
253 x 189 mm
Physical Description
Black pen, white and red chalk (traces), painted over with brush (?), framing line with brown ink, on ribbed laid paper
Inventory Number
857
Object Number
857 Z
Acquisition
Acquired in 1816 with the founder’s bequest
Status
Not on display

Texts

About the Work

This impressive chalk study of a seated old man, which formed part of the collection of Johann Friedrich Städel, is one of the few drawings bearing a complete autograph signature of Rembrandt. He may have signed the work in 1633 because he wanted to make a gift of this sheet or sell it, although the drawing itself must have been made earlier. In about 1630, when Rembrandt was an up-and-coming young artist in his home town of Leiden, he drew several studies of an elderly bearded man who also turns up in paintings and prints created around the same time. The model probably must have appealed to Rembrandt because of his expressive appearance, which made him suitable for awe-inspiring figures such as prophets and apostles. The highly informal seated pose in the drawing can also be found in an early painting of Rembrandt's which has survived only in the form of a reproduction print and which shows the inebriated Lot with his daughters (Genesis 19). Shortly before God destroyed the sinful city of Sodom, he warned Lot, who fled with his family. His wife turned back out of curiosity to view the inferno and was turned into a pillar of salt. When Lot was alone with his daughters in the mountains, they feared they would no longer be unable to find husbands. They made their father drunk and, while he was unconscious, conceived children by him.

The drawing was in all likelihood created as a study for this painting. Rembrandt has sketched the figure in a long cloak, trousers and doublet. It is drawn with energetic chalk lines which indicate the incident light, the texture of the clothing and the physical presence of the seated man. He created this effect by placing darker, sharper lines over lighter areas of chalk, which he then modelled in masterful fashion to form a whole. He made a correction to the position of the right hand, which is clasping a drinking bowl. Rembrandt used his chalk quite differently when depicting the old man's head and sensitive left hand, which is hanging down. With great restraint and sensitivity, he formed the relief of the skull, which is modelled by the light, and the face with its half-bleary, half-dismayed right eye. It seems as if Rembrandt wanted to capture the moment after the event, in which Lot regains his faculties and gradually becomes aware of what has happened.

About the Acquisition

In March 1815, the Frankfurt businessman and banker Johann Friedrich Städel bequeathed his entire fortune and art collection to a foundation which was to be named after him: the 'Städelsches Kunstinstitut'. However, he also dedicated the foundation to the citizens of Frankfurt immaterially, wishing it to be an "adornment and of practical use" to Frankfurt's citizenry. He was thus the first ordinary citizen in the German-speaking region to found a public art museum: the present-day Städel Museum. When he died, his collection comprised 476 paintings, some 4,600 drawings, almost 10,000 printed graphics and valuable books.

Work Data

Basic Information

Title
Old Man Seated (The Drunken Lot?)
Draughtsman
Production Place
Period Produced
School
Object Type
Physical Description
Black pen, white and red chalk (traces), painted over with brush (?), framing line with brown ink, on ribbed laid paper
Material
Technique
Geographic Reference
Production Reason
Label at the Time of Manufacture
Signiert und datiert unten rechts (mit schwarzer Kreide): Rembrandt f. / 1633
Captions Added Later
Verso bezeichnet in der unteren Blatthälfte (mit Bleistift): No. 14 Van Rembrandt / -7-10
Verso bezeichnet mit Notizen des Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Amsterdam (mit der Feder in Braun, Lugt 3002, 3003, 3004): h.[oog] 9/3/4 b.[reed] 7/1/2 / Rembrandt van Rijn f 1633 /geboren bij Leyden 1606 / gestorven Amsterdam 1674 / Discipel / van P. Lastman / en J. Pynas; unten rechts Stempel des Städelschen Kunstinstituts, Frankfurt am Main (Lugt 2356), mit zugehöriger Inventarnummer
Watermark
  • Nicht vorhanden
Work Catalogues
  • Benesch I.26.82
  • Royalton-Kisch (2012 ff.) 82

Property and Acquisition

Institution
Departement
Collection
Creditline
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Picture Copyright
Public Domain
Acquisition
Acquired in 1816 with the founder’s bequest

Work Content

Motifs and References

Genre
Main Motif
Associated Persons and Institutions
Associated Source
  • Bibel, Altes Testament, Genesis 19,33-35

Iconclass

Primary
Secondary
Associative
  • 71C1252 Lot's daughters make their father drunk

Research and Discussion

Provenance

Object History
Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726–1798), Amsterdam
Verst. durch Philippus van der Schley, Amsterdam, 3. März 1800
Johann Friedrich Städel (1728–1816), Frankfurt am Main
Nachlass Johann Friedrich Städel, 1816.

Information

Since 2001, the Städel Museum has systematically been researching the provenance of all objects that were acquired during the National Socialist period, or that changed owners or could have changed owners during those years. The basis for this research is the “Washington Declaration”, also known as the “Washington Conference Principles”, formulated at the 1998 “Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets” and the subsequent “Joint Declaration”.

The provenance information is based on the sources researched at the time they were published digitally. However, this information can change at any time when new sources are discovered. Provenance research is therefore a continuous process and one that is updated at regular intervals.

Ideally, the provenance information documents an object’s origins from the time it was created until the date when it found its way into the collection. It contains the following details, provided they are known:

  • the type of acquisition and/or the way the object changed hands
  • the owner's name and place of residence
  • the date on which it changed hands

The successive ownership records are separated from each other by a semicolon.

Gaps in the record of a provenance are indicated by the placeholder “…”. Unsupported information is listed in square brackets.

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Last update

13.03.2024