Young Lion Resting
Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)ca. 1638–42
black chalk, white chalk heightening, andgray wash, on brown laid paper
11.5 x 15 cm
RR-100© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Lion Resting
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How to cite
Schatborn, Peter. “Young Lion Resting” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur
K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/young-lion-resting/ (archived May2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Lion Resting
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Young Lion Resting belongs to a group of three powerful drawings of theComparative Figures

same beast closely related in style and technique that Rembrandt van Rijn
executed in the late 1630s. The other two drawings of this lion are in theBritish Museum (fig 1) and (fig 2).[1] In both of those drawings Rembrandt
depicted the lion from the side, whereas he drew Young Lion Resting in threequarter profile.[2] In each of these drawings Rembrandt carefully worked up
the head of the young lion in a similar manner, and in each he captured asense of the animal’s inner life by accentuating the eyes with firm strokes.
He also discretely applied gray washes to draw the viewer’s attention to thebeast’s head and forequarters. Slight differences among these drawings,
however, do exist. Rembrandt rendered the bodies of the London lions inFig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, ALioness Devouring a Bird, Lying
Down with Her Head to the Left,ca. 1637, charcoal with gray washheightened with white on paper
prepared with brown wash, 126 x
239 mm, British Museum, London,
inv. no. Oo, 9.71, © Trustees of
the British Museum

graceful, evocative lines, whereas in the Leiden Collection drawing contour
lines give the animal its final form. The master used similar lines to alter theposition of the forepaws.
Despite their remarkably similar appearance, Rembrandt may have usedsomewhat different materials to make these drawings. Marjorie Shelley,
paper conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has
determined that for Young Lion Resting Rembrandt used black chalkmodified with oil or black chalk with a high clay content, as well as whitechalk and gray wash applied with the brush.[3] Martin Royalton-Kisch has
concluded that Rembrandt drew the lions in the British Museum withcharcoal and gray wash,[4] while Jeroen Giltaij believes he used blackchalk.[5]Fig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn, A
Chained Lioness, Lying on theGround in Profile to the Right, ca.
1637, charcoal and gray wash
touched with white oil paint on
paper prepared with brown wash,
125 x 180 mm, British Museum,London, inv. no. Oo, 9.75, ©
Trustees of the British Museum

North African lions were brought on ships of the Dutch East India Company
to the Netherlands, where they were kept in menageries and shown atfairs.[6] Among the various animals Rembrandt drew, lions intrigued him themost.

In

additionto

hisdrawingsofotheranimals—including

horses,[7] elephants,[8] pigs,[9] and birds of paradise[10]—six autographdrawings of lions are known, including one at the Louvre (fig 3) and theaforementioned two at the British Museum.[11] He drew these animals toacquaint himself with their appearance and character, so that later on hecould portray them from the imagination. For example, he included anFig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, Studyof a Lion at Rest, ca. 1640, penand brown ink and wash on paper,
138 x 207 cm, Museé de Louvre,
Paris, © RMN-Grand Palais / Art
Resource, NYelephant in the background of an etching of Adam and Eve, 1638,[12] after
having drawn the animal from life a couple of times the previous year.
Rembrandt’s representations of Saint Jerome in the wilderness always
contain a lion, but the animal in his etching of 1634[13] is vastly different inappearance from the lion he depicted in these drawings, which date a few
years later. This difference in portrayal before and after Rembrandt had seen
© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Lion Resting
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actual lions emerges clearly in the etching Saint Jerome in an Italianate
Landscape of ca. 1653.[14]Rembrandt’s drawings of lions also served as examples for his pupils. Not
surprisingly, drawings of lions by pupils and followers of Rembrandt havesometimes been wrongly attributed to the master himself.[15] Constantijn vanRenesse (1626–80), a pupil of Rembrandt around 1650, made a drawing
with lions based on those drawn by his teacher in a portrayal of Daniel in theLions’ Den.[16]Young Lion Resting and the two London drawings are usually connected with
Rembrandt’s grisaille in Rotterdam, The Unity of the Country.[17] In thisdetailed composition, a chained lioness lies below the coat of arms of the cityof Amsterdam. This design for a political print has been given dates thatrangefromca.

1637

to1642.[18]The

inscribeddateon

thepainting—164.—indicates that Rembrandt finished it in the 1640s, though it is
impossible to be more precise because the last digit is no longer visible.
Dendrochronological examination has shown that the painting is executed ona panel from the same tree as the support of a painting in Washington D.C.,
Portrait of a Polish Nobleman, dated 1637.[19] It is possible that these threedrawings inspired Rembrandt’s depiction of the lion in the Rotterdam
painting, which would suggest a date for the three drawings of about 1637.[20]Drawings of animals were listed separately in Rembrandt’s inventory of1656: “A ditto [art book] full of drawings by Rembrandt, consisting of animals[drawn] from life.”[21] The art dealer Jan Pietersz Zomer (1641–1724) owned
19 drawings of lions by Rembrandt that were recorded in the catalogue of hiscollection compiled in about 1722.[22] Rembrandt’s Recueil de Lions,engraved by Bernard Picart (1673–1733) and published in Amsterdam in
1729, contained eighteen lions—perhaps the same as those published byZomer. The two previously mentioned drawings in London both figure (inreverse) in Picart’s lion series.[24] The 1800 sale catalogue of the collection ofCornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726–98) also lists 14 lions.[25] Drawings of lions
were exceptionally popular, as is evident from the numerous copies madeafter them.

- Peter Schatborn, 2017
© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Lion Resting
Page 5 of 10Endnotes

1. Although the lion in this drawing has been described as the same animal as the one in theBritish Museum sheets, Luke Hunter, President of Panthera, has suggested that this is a malecub, rather than a lioness. Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6vols. (London and New York, 1973), 3: no. 474, figs. 974 and 475, fig. 978; Martin RoyaltonKisch, Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt and His School in the British Museum (London,2010), nos. 29 and 30 (ca. 1638–42).
2. It is unclear whether he holds captured prey between his paws, as he does in one of theLondon sheets.
3. See Technical Summary.
4. Martin Royalton-Kisch, Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt and His School in the BritishMuseum (London, 2010), nos. 29 and 30.
5. Jeroen Giltaij, “Review of Martin Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and His Circle in
the British Museum, London, 1991,” Simiolus 23 (1995): 98.
6. A drawing of 1653 by Jan van Goyen (1596–1656) in the J. Paul Getty Museum depicts alarge tent, pitched just outside a village, with a sign depicting an elephant. Lions were nodoubt presented to the public in the same way. See George R. Goldner, European Drawings
I: Catalogue of the Collections (Malibu, 1988), 244–45, no. 108 (A Village Festival withMusicians Playing outside a Tent, 1653, black chalk and gray wash, 17.0 x 27.7 cm.).
7. Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London and New York,1973), 2: no. 461, fig. 549; Martin Royalton-Kisch, Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt andHis School in the British Museum (London, 2010), no. 73, inv. Ff,4.121.
8. Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 2: nos.
457, 458, and 459, figs. 546, 548, and 549.
9. Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 4: nos.
777, 778, and 779, figs. 980, 981, and 982.
10. Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 2: 456,fig. 544.
11. Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 3: no.
474, fig. 974, and no. 475, fig. 978; 5: no. 1211, fig. 1511, no. 1214, fig. 1514, and no. 1246,fig. 1516.
12. Adam and Eve, 1638, etching, 162 x 116 mm (Bartsch 28).
13. Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, 1634, etching, 119 x 105 mm (Bartsch 100).
14. Saint Jerome in an Italianate Landscape, ca. 1653, etching, 259 x 210 mm (Bartsch 104).
© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Lion Resting
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15. Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 4: no.
776, fig. 975; no. 781, fig. 976; no. 782, fig. 977; no. 979, fig. 783.
16. Daniel in the Lions’ Den, 1649–52, black chalk, pen, and brown ink, brush and brown wash,heightened with white, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, inv. MB 200. WernerSumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, ed. and trans. Walter L. Strauss, 10 vols.
(New York, 1979–92), 9: no. 2145.
17. The Unity of the Country, oil on panel, 74.6 x 101 mm, signed lower right: Rembrandt 164.
(last digit missing), Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, inv. 1717.
18. Josua Bruyn, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3: 1635–1642, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), A 135: late 1630s, signed in the1640s; Jeroen Giltaij, Guido Jansen, and Josua Bruyn, Een gloeiend palet: Schilderijen vanRembrandt en zijn School, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam, 1988), ca. 1638,early 1640s; Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt: A Life in 180 Paintings (Amsterdam, 2008),
ca. 1637.
19. Portrait of a Polish Nobleman, 1637, oil on panel, 97 x 66 cm, signed and dated at upper
right: Rembrandt ft./1637, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1937.1.78. See Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr., The Collection of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogues: Dutch
Paintings of the Seventeenth Century (Washington, D.C., 1995), 222–26, repro. A River
Landscape with a Windmill in Kassel is painted on the same piece of wood (oil on panel, 67 x
87.5 cm, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel, inv. GK 242). JosuaBruyn, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3: 1635–1642, Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1989), B 12. This painting was executed in twostages, first in a Rembrandtesque style in around 1640, possibly by Rembrandt himself, andthen overpainted about 1650–55, probably by Ferdinand Bol.
20. The lioness sheets would therefore date to around same time as the black chalk drawing ofan elephant in Vienna, dated 1637. Black chalk, 233 x 354 mm, Albertina, Vienna, inv. 17558.
Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 2: no.
457, fig. 546.
21. Walter L. Strauss, and Marion van der Meulen, The Rembrandt Documents (New York,1979), 1656/12, no. 249.
22. Peter Schatborn, “Van Rembrandt tot Crozat: Vroege verzamelingen met tekeningen vanRembrandt,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 32 (1981): 21–24.
23. Peter Schatborn, “Van Rembrandt tot Crozat. Vroege verzamelingen met tekeningen vanRembrandt,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 32 (1981), 25–28.
24. Bernard Picart, Recueil de Lions (Amsterdam, 1729), nos. F 5 and F 6.
25. Sale, Amsterdam, 3 May 1800, VV, nos. 32–45. The four drawings from this group that havebeen accepted as the work of Rembrandt do not correspond to the drawings used by Picart.
© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Lion Resting
Page 7 of 10See Peter Schatborn, “Van Rembrandt tot Crozat: Vroege verzamelingen met tekeningen
van Rembrandt,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 32 (1981): 28.

ProvenanceJean-Jacques de Boissieu (1736–1810), France.[1]Robert Lebel (1901–86), Paris, by 1968. [2][Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London/New York, together with Artemis Fine Art, London/New York,
2000; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London/New York, 2005; Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, 2005].
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Provenance Notes

1. Based on the RKD photo archive mount, not currently available online. French draughtsman
and engraver Jean-Jacques de Boissieu collected works on paper by Rembrandt and otherseventeenth-century Dutch artists and referenced them in his own artwork.
2. Based on the RKD photo archive mount, not currently available online. Lebel was also amajor collector of Dutch drawings.

Exhibition History
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, 2006 [lent bythe present owner].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, “Drawing Life: The Dutch Visual Tradition,” 24November 2009–28 February 2010, no. 7 [lent by the present owner].
Ithaca, Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, “An Eye For Detail: Dutch
Painting from The Leiden Collection,” January–May 2015 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,” 22February–22 May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden
Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Lion Resting
Page 8 of 10Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May
2019 [lent by the present owner].

References
Slive, Seymour. The Drawings of Rembrandt: A New Study. London, 2009, 124, 235 n. 52.
Schatborn, Peter. Rembrandt and His Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection. 2 vols.
Paris, 2010, 88, 89 n. 9.
Royalton-Kisch, Martin. Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt and His School in the BritishMuseum. London, 2010, no. 29, n. 4.
Surh, Dominique. “Young Lion Resting.” In Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Ageof Rembrandt. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 86, no. 33. Exh. cat. Paris,Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Rembrandt and His Time: China and the Dutch Republic in theGolden Age.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Editedby Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 9; 14, no. 16. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National
Museum of China. Beijing, 2017
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Study of a Woman in a White Cap.” In Rembrandt and His Time:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 52–53; 175, no.
16. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Journal of National Museum of China 169, no. 8 (2017): back cover.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 70–71.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age ofRembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina
Lyubimova, 18, 22; 29, 32. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow,The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum.
Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara “Study of a Woman in a White Cap.” In The Age of Rembrandt and© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Lion Resting
Page 9 of 10Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 176–77; 243,no. 55. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State
Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Van der Werff, Laurien. “‘Seecker jonge leeuw’: Historische Datum 30 January 1657,
Notaris Jacob de Winter.” Alle Amsterdamse Akten. Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief.
Published October 3, 2018. http://alleamsterdamseakten.nl/artikel/1608/seecker-jonge-leeuw/.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt,
Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and theMusée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 25. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French andArabic.]
Savatier Sjöholm, Olivia. “Rembrandt’s Drawings: Pedagogy Lessons and Vehicles ofArtistic Dialogue.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from TheLeiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara YeagerCrasselt, 49, n. 21. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibitioncatalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden
Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 54, 113, no. 43. [Exhibition catalogue also
published in French and Arabic.]
Schatborn, Peter, and Erik Hinterding. Rembrandt: The Complete Drawings and Etchings.
Cologne, 2019, 19, 299, no. D474.
Coutré, Jacquelyn N., Ed. Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges. Exh. cat. Kingston, Agnes
Etherington; Edmonton, Art Gallery of Alberta; Hamilton, Art Gallery of Hamilton. Kingston,
2019, 193, no. 98.

Technical Summary
The support, a sheet of brown laid paper, has been hinged to a decorated historic mount with its
outer margins trimmed. The support has been laid down, and small areas extend beyond themount edges. Although the mount does not bear any collector’s marks, it appears the drawing
was once adhered to it. Layers of paper from an earlier mounting are present along the corners,
and a layer of modern laid paper adhered to the central area serves as a barrier between thedrawing and the mount.
The drawing is executed in a rich black chalk with white chalk heightening. Under magnification,
the black chalk appears to have been enriched with a liquid, possibly a gum, which increased its© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Lion Resting
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viscosity and enhanced it blackness. Some strokes and marks have a slightly lustrous quality,
whereas others have a drier, matte quality.
The drawing is unsigned and undated.
The drawing has not undergone conservation treatment since acquisition and remains in an
excellent state of preservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Entry based on 2009 examination report by Marjorie Shelley, Sherman Fairchild Conservatorin Charge, Sherman Fairchild Center for Works on Paper and Photograph Conservation,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection