Rembrandt’s Preparatory Drawings and Sketches

Art Lesson 38, Part 15

In this lesson, you will learn about Rembrandt’s Preparatory Drawings and Sketches

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Rembrandt’s Preparatory Drawings and Sketches

Usually, Rembrandt did drawings directly on a canvas or panel without preliminary drawings or sketches; such a direct approach is called pentimenti.

There were rare cases where Rembrandt worked on a composition in preparatory sketches.

He never executed meticulously prepared cartoon for outlines to be transferred onto canvas and then painted within outlines, similar to Florentine school approach.

Rembrandt – as well as Titian – followed colorito in his paintings, not desegno.

There are only three preparatory drawings by Rembrandt that show the whole composition. In most cases, the artist sketched directly on the actual support. Those remaining sketches on paper are rough and approximate.

Here is the drawing for Judas Returning the 30 Pieces of Silver. The pen and wash compositional drawing shows figures in relation to the architectural setting. The other two drawings show the group of figures in the center in slightly different positions.