A cottage beneath trees
by REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn, Quill and reed pen and brown ink, 183 x 326 mm
Catalogue number: Benesch 801.
By far the largest number of Rembrandt’s drawings were executed in pen and ink. He used both quill pen and reed pen. The quill pen is a traditional writing or drawing implement fashioned from the large, hollow outer wing feathers of a goose, swan, raven, or crow. The reed pen is cut from hollow-barreled grass, including canes and bamboo.
In the present drawing the background is drawn largely in quill, the foreground mainly in reed. In the descriptions of the technique of Rembrandt drawings, usually it is not specified whether a quill or reed pen was used or both.