Description: Pen and brown ink, brown wash, corrections in white body colour. Arched at the top, c. 233 x 201 mm. The framing lines, drawn freehand, are part of the drawing. Horizontal fold near the top, repairs at the top edge. Watermark: Foolscap. Chain lines: 24 mm. Numbered in the lower right corner, in pen and brown ink, 1844 (Sparre) and 71 (struck out). Mark of the Royal Collection (Lugt 1638).

Thin pen lines define the subject, angular in the figures and more fluid in the surroundings. Both areas have been reworked with much broader strokes, culminating in a labyrinthine array of undulating lines on the right. There, an animal can be made out on top of the rock. Some of the darkest areas have been retouched with white, which has turned partly transparent: on Abraham’s chin, on his hand and on Isaac’s head, and to the far right. There is also some light, grey-brown wash in this area, and yellowish-brown wash on the base of the rock. 

An outline of buildings and perhaps a mountain rises diagonally behind Abraham. This line is repeated higher up with broader strokes, which seems to have led to the introduction of the heavy vegetation at the upper right, bringing with it additional reinforcement further down (“linear over-loading” in Sumowski’s words).

Sumowski’s suggestion that the drawing is by Pieter de With is not convincing. It is quite different from all the other figure drawings and landscapes he proposes. In some ways the drawing seems closer to Drost. But the most interesting parallel, stylistically as well, is a drawing of the same subject in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin. The setting is similar, and there too a heavy accent has been added on the right and the vegetation is fuzzy. Yet another version is in Dresden. There, only the main group is drawn, and the intervening angel comes down in the rays of light that descend from above. [Magnusson, Dutch Drawings no. 357]

Abrahams offer