Watermark: none.
This painterly, luminous brush drawing belongs to a small group of related works by van den Eeckhout, one of Rembrandt's most successful pupils. While these drawings were long thought to have been made in the 1650s, when Rembrandt was using a similar technique, the clothing of the sitters in the group actually dates to ca. 1670, placing them near the end of van den Eeckhout's life. Especially charming here is the hint of a smile covered by the boy's hand, the wrinkles of the skin rendered as blank stripes. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"
Numbered on verso in graphite, "162".
Vos Jacobszoon, Jacob de, 1803-1878, former owner.
Langerhuizen, Pieter, 1839-1918, former owner.
Goldschmidt, Adolph, 1863-1944, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 114, repr.
The Thaw Collection : Master Drawings and Oil Sketches : Acquisitions since 1994. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 2002, no. 8, 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. 73.
100 Master drawings from the Morgan Library & Museum. München : Hirmer, 2008, no. 60, repr. [Jennifer Tonkovich and Jane Shoaf Turner]