The drawing belongs to a group of works showing men and women in richly ornate costumes that originated in Rembrandt's studio at the end of the 1630s. A single drawing in this group, at the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, is attributed to the master himself. The other sheets have been connected with the drawn oeuvre of Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, who was active in Rembrandt's workshop at this time. For a coprehensive discussion of the group, see Holm Bevers, "Early, Rembrandtesque Drawings by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout", in Master Drawings 48/1 (2010), esp. pp. 60-67.
The drawing may depict Badeloch, a character in "Gijsbrecht van Aemstel" (1638), the best-known play of the poet Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679). However, the costume and especially the headdress are not in line with with what Badeloch was normally shown wearing. See Julia Lloyd Williams, Rembrandt's Women (Edinburgh, 2001), cat. 66.
Watermark: none visible through lining.
Inscribed at lower right, in Rymsdyk's hand, in brown ink, "Rymsdyk's Museum". On the old mount, also in Rymsdyk's hand, in brown ink, at center, "Rembrandt, / disciple of Lastman", and below this, "Rembrandt's manner of Etching was as remarkable as his Painting. There are about 80 / Prints which he published 4 or 5 times by retouching the Plates="; and at left, in another hand, in brown ink, "Born near Leyden 1606", and at right, "Died at Amsterdam in 167[?]". On the verso of the mount, at upper center, in Rymsdyk's hand, in brown ink: "BXI / Rymsdyk; below this, Rembrandt's manner / of Etching, was as remarkable as his Painting, / there are about Four score of his Prints, / which He Publish't 4 or 5 times; by Retouching / the Plates overagain. Born 1606. Died 1669. / Aet. 62"; and at lower right, in another hand, in graphite, £ SD ["£ SD" in superscript] 330 ["330 in subscript].
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669, Formerly attributed to.
Rymsdyk, Jan van, fl. ca. 1770, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, I, 177, repr.
Stampfle, Felice and Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann. Rembrandt Drawings from American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum; New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1960, no. 32, repr.
Stampfle, Felice. Rubens and Rembrandt in Their Century : Flemish and Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century from The Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1979, no. 32, repr.
Jane Shoaf Turner, with contributions by Felice Stampfle, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 2006, cat. no. 214.