Watermark: none visible through lining with fiber optic light.
The inscription, which translates as "those who are in disgrace [i.e. have not killed an enemy] are unshorn," is a paraphrase in Dutch of a passage from Tacitus' "Germania". It refers to a custom among the Chatti (tribal ancestors of the Dutch), whereby the young men grew their hair and remained unshaven until they had slain their first enemy in battle.
Inscribed by the artist at upper right, in brown ink, "in ongenaeden sÿnden / en werden niet / geschooren"; on the old mount at lower right, in graphite, "Coninck".; numbered on the verso, in upper right corner (upside down), in black ink, "A 22 [A underlined and superscript] [22 subscript]"; in opposite direction at lower left, in graphite, "A D [A underlined and superscript] [D in subscript]"; and further to the right, also in graphite, "9- 2 [9- superscript] [2 subscript]".
Koninck, Philips, 1619-1688, Formerly attributed to.
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, 211, repr. (as "ascribed to P. Koninck").
Jane Shoaf Turner, with contributions by Felice Stampfle, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 2006, cat. no. 212.