The death of Sapphira (?). Pen and ink drawing after a hypothetical drawing by Rembrandt van Rijn and one of his students.

Between 1600 and 1699.

1 drawing : pen and ink ; image 18.3 x 20.3 cm

The association of this drawing with Rembrandt depends on its similarity in composition to a drawing in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, which is attributed to Rembrandt in O. Benesch, loc. cit., where it is described as "done in pen and light brown bistre by a pupil, has been corrected by Rembrandt himself with pen and wash in dark brown bistre". The Wellcome drawing includes a figure on the extreme right most of which is missing in the Pierpont Morgan drawing. In a letter of 8 October 1983 Prof. Werner Sumowski stated that the Wellcome drawing was "zweifellos" (doubtless) copied from the Pierpont Morgan drawing before the latter was cut down. In a letter of 14 October 1983 Felice Stampfle, Curator, Drawings and prints at the Pierpont Morgan Library, stated "I think it is possible that both drawings depend on a lost or unknown original by the master." On 22 October 1983, Martin Royalton-Kisch of the British Museum said that the pencil lines which have been gone over in ink were typical of a copy, that the Wellcome drawing was probably by a Rembrandt pupil, and that the Pierpont Morgan drawing could well be by Ferdinand Bol instead of Rembrandt. In his publication cited here, Sumowski places the drawing under works attributed to Barend Fabritius

O. Benesch, The drawings of Rembrandt, second edition, London 1973, vol. 4, no. 855, (fig. 1059 (Pierpont Morgan drawing)

W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt school, edited and translated by Walter L. Strauss, New York 1979-, vol. 4, B. Fabritius no. 854a-xx (Pierpont Morgan drawing).

Wellcome Collection 35682i