ABSTRACT
Abraham van Dijck has long been an obscure figure in Rembrandt School studies. Until recently the sum of our information on Van Dijck’s life was the discovery of a document in 1906, which indicates that he was active in Amsterdam in the early 1660s; Abraham Bredius’ further identification of this artist with a man of the same name who was buried in the Westerkerk in 1672; and a few ambiguous details gleaned from Houbraken and old sale catalogues. 1 Beginning in 1983, Werner Sumowski made the first comprehensive attempt to sketch out the perimeters of his oeuvre, a task marred by a dearth of signed and dated works. 2 The impression that has emerged from Sumowski’s catalogue is of a painter who was highly eclectic and of decidedly mixed ability. Despite his obvious limitations and our lack of direct access to much of his work, which is in private hands, or was last seen at auction some decades ago, attempts have been made of late to attribute major works to Abraham van Dijck. Walter Liedtke has suggested that he may have painted the large sculptural Woman Cutting her Nails (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), for long accepted as a genuine work by Rembrandt before being reassigned to Nicolaes Maes, one of his most innovative pupils. 3 Significant paintings formerly given to another of Rembrandt’s star apprentices, Willem Drost, including the monumental Manoah’s Sacrifice in Dresden, have been tentatively reattributed to Van Dijck by Jonathan Bikker. 4
