The Parable of the Lost Sheep

This drawing and the following lot belong to a group of more than 55 drawings known as the 'Pseudo-Victors Group', after an old attribution to the Amsterdam artist Jan Victors. This attribution was first suggested by A.M. Hind for a drawing in the British Museum, which shows a hurdy-gurdy player (inv. 1895,0915.1342; see A.M. Hind, Catalogue of Drawings by Dutch and Flemish Artists, Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, London, 1915, p. 94, no. 1, pl. LXIII). It was later given to Nicolaes Maes on the basis of a related painting in the Dordrechts Museum (inv. 948/119; see Sumowski, op. cit., 1984, fig. 103), an attribution which was accepted by Sumowski (ibid., pp. 4259-4261). The painting has since been given to Justus de Gelder, Maes’s stepson, on the basis of a signed painting discovered in 1996, and Martin Royalton-Kisch has suggested that the British Museum drawing, and the others in the 'Pseudo-Victors Group', could be given to Justus de Gelder too. For an extensive discussion on the group and its attribution, see P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle. Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, Bussum, 2005, I, pp. 228-229.
We are very grateful to Peter Schatborn and Martin Royalton-Kisch for their assistance in cataloguing this drawing and the following lot.