Rembrandt’s Young Lion Resting Fetches $18 Million at Auction

A rare Rembrandt drawing of a lion sold for $17.86 million at Sotheby’s on Wednesday, with the proceeds of the sale benefitting Panthera, the world’s leading organization dedicated to the conservation of wild cats. The work, which was expected to fetch between $15-20 million, is the first Rembrandt drawing of a lion to come to market in a century, and the only one that remains in a private collection. The remaining five drawings featuring lions, which date from the late 1630s to the 1640s, are in museum collections in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam.

Widely regarded as one of the leading painters of the Dutch Golden Age, Rembrandt’s dramatic use of light and shadow is evident in this drawing. In this work, offered from the coveted Leiden collection and now the most valuable drawing by the artist ever sold at auction, the depiction of the lion suggests Rembrandt saw the lion live, although it is unclear where exactly he would have seen it. Experts deduce that the artist would have been in his early to mid-thirties at the time of completion.