Pen, point of brush in brown ink, brown wash, corrections in white body colour. Upper corners rounded, and the top slightly arched, 149 x 168 mm. First a light ink has been used and then a darker one. The white body colour has been applied afterwards, and has oxidized in places and become transparent in others. In some places where it is thickly applied, it has partly peeled off. Some very fine lines in black reinforce the eyes, nose and mouth of the old man. Laid down. Inscribed in the lower left corner, in pencil, 1/r. On the verso, on the cardboard support, the collector’s mark of J. T. Sergel (Lugt 2339b), and numbered No 121, in pen and brown ink, for the sale in 1875. Numbered in pencil, /15/v, indicating the number of the portfolio when it arrived at the Museum.

As noted above, this drawing was begun with a light brown ink, and continued in a darker ink. White body colour is, in part, applied with a fine brush to add precision to the broad, summary pen strokes. This is particularly evident in the face of the scribe, where it is applied on top of broad ink strokes to define the eyes and mouth. Other applications of white seem to be corrections that have later turned semi-transparent. The dull, dark brown washes in the area behind and above the old man seem alien and were probably added later, but if so that must be true of the white body colour on the sleeve too, since it covers some of the wash.

The drawing may be connected with a painting of Homer dictating, executed for the Italian collector Antonio Ruffo. Documents show that a half-finished painting was sent to Ruffo for approval in November 1662, and that he returned it to be finished. The painting was later damaged by fire, and a fragment including only Homer is preserved in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.

No drawing is mentioned in the documents, but it is reasonable to assume that ideas on the subject were exchanged before the painting was begun. The present drawing may have been a sketch model, sent to Ruffo for approval. The fact that it is from the collection of the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel would support that assumption, since much of his collection of drawings was formed in Rome in the 1770s. However, Sergel could also have come across it in England or Sweden, or his friend Ehrensvärd could have found it in Holland. There are many possibilities. The character of the drawing makes it more likely a part of the design process than a finished model. It could reflect the first version of the composition. Ruffo returned the painting in order to have changes made. According to an inventory of 1737, there were two scribes and not one, and Homer’s head is seen more in profile in the drawing than in the preserved fragment of the painting. The drawing was most likely made in 1661. [Magnusson, Dutch Drawings no. 331]