by-nc

Self-portrait at the age of thirty

Maker

(artist)
1667-1745

Title

Self-portrait at the age of thirty

Date of Production

(3 Mar) 1735

Medium

graphite on parchment

Dimensions

Height: 14.9 cm
Width: 11.6 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1660

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords







Label Text

Richardson was one of Rembrandt’s earliest English admirers, and avidly collected drawings and etchings by him. The 17th-century Dutch artist was without doubt a powerful influence both as a compulsive draughtsman and as an inveterate self-portraitist. In this remarkable drawing Richardson pays homage, emulating one of the master’s self-portrait etchings and depicting his younger self as Rembrandt.

Provenance

by descent to the artist's son, Jonathan Richardson, the younger (1694-1771), L.2170; presumably his sale, Langford and Son (London), 5 - 12 February 1772; John Barnard, London (1709-1784), L.1419; Sotheby's (London), 25 - 26 June 1923, lot 40 (with D.1952.RW.1662 and 1663); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b (£2.1); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Rembrandt's Mark, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, 14/06/2019-15/09/2019

Rembrandt: Britain’s Discovery of the Master, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, 07/07/2018-14/10/2018

Jonathan Richardson by himself, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 24/06/2015-20/09/2015 ...More

Portrait of the Artist as ..., The Courtauld Gallery, London, 26/06/2012-22/07/2012

Rembrandt in eighteenth-century England, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1983

A collection of pictures, drawings, furniture and objets d'art, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1924-25 ...Less

Literature

Rembrandt's Mark, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, 2019
cat. no. 9
p. 96
Illus. on p. 96

Rembrandt: Britain's Discovery of the Master, Edinburgh National Galleries of Scotland 2018
p. 23; p. 141, cat. 123
fig. 16, p. 23

Gibson-Wood, Carol, 'Jonathan Richardson as a Draftsman' in 'Master Drawings', 1994 - 203-229; 32, no. 3
p. 209 and see note 29
p. 210, fig. 5
see attached PDF ...More

Rembrandt in eighteenth-century England, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1983
cat. no. 53
pl. 7

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 39

Collins Baker, C.H., 'Some Drawings by Jonathan Richardson in the Witt Collection' in 'The Connoisseur', December 1925
p. 202
no. VI ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: n/a.

Inscription: Verso: upper left corner and again at upper right corner, graphite: "h/*"; upper centre, graphite, Jonathan Richardson the younger's hand: "My Father"; lower centre, pen and brown ink, 18th/19th-century hand: "J R Senr"; lower right, graphite, dated: "3 Mar 1734/5"; lower right, graphite, circled, written above the "1697" date in the other inscription: "1666"; lower right, graphite, erased or faded and hard to read: "7/6 [?]"; lower right, graphite: "the Orig:done abt May 12 1697".

Collector's mark: Recto: lower right, stamped in black, almost completely worn away: Jonathan Richardson, the younger (L.2170). Verso: upper right, written in brown ink: John Barnard (L.1419); lower right, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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