|
Willem Drost was a pupil of Rembrandt. His presence in Rembrandt's studio is undocumented, however, his works suggest that he had contact with the master in the late 1640s or early 1650s. Support for connecting him with Rembrandt is given by his sensuous, half-length Bathsheba dated 1654 which was unmistakable inspired by Rembrandt's superb painting done in the same year of the same subject, also in the Louvre, Paris. Drost's beautiful half-nude Bathsheba captures none of the overtones of Uriah's wife's story sensed in Rembrandt's moving portrayal of her contemplating her decision to go to David, but it impresses by the smooth painting of the palpable glowing flesh set off by heavy impasto of the drapery and its strong chiaroscuro effect.
|
