Rembrandt Harmensz, van Rijn (1606-1669) A Sleeping Woman at a Window Reed pen and bistre on paper, heightened in white 11.5 x 9.4 cm Provenance: First recorded in the collection of Jacob de Vos, Amsterdam in 1833 and passed by descent to Jacob de Vos in 1883. It was acquired by the celebrated Rembrandt drawings collector, J.P Heseltine. Sold at auction, Amsterdam, F. Muller 1913, at which time it was bought by a French private collection. Purchased at P.&D. Colnaghi, London 1973. Rembrandt executed a small number of genre pieces of sleeping women at windows or in bed. Some of these depict his wife Saskia (1612-1642), and others are from what is probably the same female model with rounded cheeks. This well-known drawing gained a wider art-historical significance when it was published by Gowing in 1952, as a possible inspiration for Vermeer’s (1632-1675) repeated use of the appearance of female figures at windows. The Schorr Collection Catalogue Volume 1, page