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A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings pp 519–534Cite as

Rembrandt — A woman wading in a pond (Callisto in the wilderness)

London, the National Gallery, Inv. No. 54

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Part of the book series: Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project ((RRSE,volume 5))

Abstract

Although at first sight this well preserved work may appear sketchily executed, it is a very subtle painting, epitomising Rembrandt’s artistic and pictorial genius. Its authenticity has never been questioned. This entry considers the various interpretations of the painting’s iconography in the art-historical literature, and attempts to shed new light on its meaning and function.

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Notes

  1. J. Bruyn, ‚Een onderzoek naar 17de-eeuwse schilderijformaten, voornamelijk in Noord-Nederland‘, O.H. 93 (1979), pp. 96–115, esp. 106–107, 108–109 and 111.

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  2. Exhib. cat. Art in the making, 1988/89, pp. 31 and 96; 2006, pp. 138–145, esp. 140 and p. 224.

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  3. Van de Wetering 1997/2009, Chapter VIII, esp. pp. 203–211.

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  4. Exhib. cat. Art in the making, 1988/89, p. 98; 2006, p. 141.

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  5. Exhib. cat. Art in the making, 1988/89, p. 100; 2006, p. 142, which includes other mixtures found in the paintings and reproductions of cross-sections.

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  6. N. MacLaren, National Gallery catalogues. The Dutch school, London 1960, p. 313.

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  7. Hendrickje Stoffels became pregnant with Rembrandt’s child in 1654. Their daughter Cornelia was baptised on 30 October of that year: see Corpus IV Biographical Information, pp. 335 and 339: dd. 25 June 1649 and 25 June 1654 and days following. In 1654, Hendrickje was approximately 28 years old (see also Strauss Doc. 1654/11 and 1654/18).

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  8. E.J. Sluijter, Rembrandt and the female nude, Amsterdam 2006.

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  9. A.R. Pelzer (ed.), Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau-, Bild-und Mahlerey-Künste von 1675: Leben der berühmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister, Munich 1925; A. Houbraken, Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilde-ressen (3 vols), Amsterdam, vol. I, 1718, p. 262.

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  10. W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt und seine Umgebung, Straatsburg 1905.

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  11. Op. cit.11, pp. 327–331.

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  12. Chrispijn van de Passe, ‚t Light der teken en schilderkonst, J. Bolten ed., Soest 1973, part I, p. 31.

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  13. J. van der Waals, De prentschat van Michiel Hinloopen. Een reconstructie van de eerste openbare papierkunstverzameling in Nederland, The Hague/Am ster dam 1988, pp. 63–64 and figs. 65 and 66.

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  14. ‚Het Waeter wort somtyts, voor de son de, verstaen, en de Mensche die daer in staet voor den Son daer, gelijck David singht, “de Waeteren zijn tot aen mijn ziele gekomen”‚. C. Ripa, Iconologia of Uytbeeldinghe des Verstandts, Amsterdam 1644, p. 469.

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  15. H.Th. Colenbrander, ‚Rembrandt’s A woman bathing in a stream in London’s National Gallery’, in: M. Roscam-Abbing, Rembrandt 2006, Leiden 2006, pp. 57–62.

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  16. Tümpel 1986, p. 405, no. 122; Sluijter op. cit.11, pp. 112–141.

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  17. J. Kelch in: exhib. cat. Rembrandt. Paintings, 1991/92, no. 40 opts for this possibility. For the iconography of Bathsheba, see V 2.

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  18. E.J. Sluijter, De ‚Heydensche Fabulen ‘in de Noordnederlandse schilderkunst, circa 1590–1670, n.p., n.d. [1986]; Sluijter op. cit.11, pp. 332–368.

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  19. Exhib. cat. Art in the making, 2006, p. 140.

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  20. J. Leja, ‘Rembrandt’s Woman bathing in a stream’, Simiolus 24 (1996), pp. 320–327.

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  21. Sluijter, op. cit.11, p. 188 ff.

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  22. Leja, op.cit.25, p. 326, Unaware of Leja’s interpretation, in 2006 Lyckle de Vries also proposed that the wading woman represents Callisto. Like Leja, he too believed that this was a Herauslösung from the episode of Diana with her bathing nymphs. L. de Vries, ‚Enkele opmerkingen over Rembrandts eensaeme historien‘, Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis 2006/1-2, pp. 34–41, esp. 39–41.

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  23. ‚Uyt de heylige plaets verjaeght, welcke heylige plaets den Poeet het badt van Diana versiert te wesen: doe [toen] heeft sy haer [zich] voor eenighen tijdt onthouden heymelijck in den wildernissen‘. K. van Mander, Wtlegghingh op den Metamorphosis Pub. Ovidii Nasonis, in: idem, Het Schilder-Boeck, Haarlem 1603–1604, esp. fol. 17v.

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  24. Leja, op.cit.25, p. 327.

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  25. Exhib. cat. Art in the making 1988/89, p. 96; 2006, p. 138.

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  26. C. Scallen, Rembrandt, Reputation and the rise of connoisseurship, Amsterdam 2004.

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  27. Wtlegghingh op den Metamorphosis Pub. Ovidii Nasonis, in: idem, Het Schilder-Boeck Op.cit.29}: ‚het welck namaels te ghelooven veroorsaeckte datse in den Hemel opgevoert waren‘.

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  28. Wtlegghingh op den Metamorphosis Pub. Ovidii Nasonis, in: idem, Het Schilder-Boeck ‚En dat dese Sterren so by de Topsterre verheven wesende, [niet] in de Zeegolven [… ] verdrencken‘. Op.cit.29}, fol. 18r: Although Ovid explains this in primarily negative terms in the sense that Callisto’s shame was always so visible, Van Mander’s account is surprisingly neutral. See also Sluijter, op. cit.11, p. 165 ff.

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  29. ‚D’onschuldigh Andromeda van [door] Perseo verlost, toont ons, dat de vrome door de goedertieren beschickinge Gods, dicwils in d’uyterste benoutheyt wesende, onversiens verlost worden ‘en dat ‚Gode, met aller danckbaerheyt den prijs [voor bijv. een overwinning] gheven.‘

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  30. G. de Lairesse, Groot Schilderboek, Haarlem 17402, Vol. 2, pp. 126–132: ‚Dat Ovidius haar … aanmerkelyke plaats aan de … hemel doet hebben, … zulks doet hy om op een verwonderlyke manier haare eeuwige schande aan te toonen, … Doch hierop kan men mede een veel Christelyker gedachte vormen, naamentlyk dat deze besmette ziel een afkeer van haare bedreevene misdaad krygende, haare opregte bekeering en waar berouw zo aanmerkelyk en Gode zo aangenaam is geweest, dat hy haar een veel heerlyker plaatse en blinkender gelaat aan den hemel toegevoegd heeft, nevens een vaste standplaats; op dat alle stervelingen haar voorbeeld volgende, zich tot bekeering en deugd mogen voegen; … ‘We are most grateful to Lyckle de Vries for verbally referring us to this passage.

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  31. S. van Hoogstraeten, Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst, Rotterdam 1678, pp. 309–324.

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  32. Panel 176 × 83 cm; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. 688 and exhib. cat. Art in the making, 1988/89, p. 96; 2006, p. 140.

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  33. Van de Wetering 1997/2009, p. 164, note 22.

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  34. A. Waltmans, Hendrikje Stoffels. Een meisje uit de provincie in een Amsterdams kunstenaarsmilieu, Yzerlo 2006, esp. pp. 3–9 and 45–58. One can certainly expect that a 17th-century art dealer with some understanding of art — and given her constant proximity to Rembrandt, Hendrickje would surely have acquired such an understanding — would be familiar with the well-known topos of the ‘non-finito’ and associated workshop anecdotes as part of his — in this case her — intellectual baggage.

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  35. M. Boschini, ‚Le minere della pittura‘, Compandiosa informazione di Marco Boschini, non solo delle pitture pubbliche di Venezia, ma delle isole ancora circonvicine, Venice 1664, pp. 119–120 and Van de Wetering 1997/ 2009, p. 164.

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  36. Based on the provenance in: N. MacLaren and C. Brown, National Gallery catalogues, The Dutch School 1600–1900, London 1991, p. 333.

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  37. F. Broun, Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Rembrandts, unpublished manuscript 1984, pp. 28–33.

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Authors
  1. Ernst Van De Wetering
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© 2011 Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project

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Van De Wetering, E. (2011). Rembrandt — A woman wading in a pond (Callisto in the wilderness). In: A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5786-1_24

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