These ‘Extremely Rare’ 17th-Century Drawings Were Astonishingly Well-Preserved. Now They Are on Display for the First Time in Nearly a Century

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum acquired the drawing book, which has artwork attributed to Rombout Uylenburgh, a celebrated 17th-century Dutch painter whose legacy later fell into obscurity

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

August 21, 2026 8:00 a.m.

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A book from the 1600s now on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam contains a substantial group of drawings attributed, with some reservations, to the artist Rombout Uylenburgh, marking the first time in nearly a century that the object has been accessible to the public. 

The three-month-long exhibition of the 17th-century book was made possible by the Van Eeghen family, which has a long history of arts-related philanthropy. The family donated the “extremely rare” drawing book to the museum after owning it for more than 300 years. 

The book contains roughly 30 drawings, including a series of elaborate biblical scenes. Many of the full-page drawings were made on blue paper, which provided a color tone that allowed artists to build up darker shadows and brighter highlights, creating a greater sense of depth and contrast. Because the book was exposed to very little light for centuries, its drawings have retained remarkably vivid colors.

“The Van Eeghen Drawing Book is a highlight of Dutch draughtsmanship. The donation enables the Rijksmuseum to introduce everyone to Rombout Uylenburgh, a fascinating artist of whom very little work has survived,” Taco Dibbits, the Rijksmuseum’s general director, says in a statement. 

Born around 1580 in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden, Uylenburgh moved with his family to Kraków, Poland, where he developed his artistic talent and became a royal court painter under Sigismund III. Around 1612, he moved again to the Polish port city of Danzig, now known as Gdańsk. There he developed a reputation for grisailles, monochromatic paintings typically executed in shades of gray.

The exact purpose of the drawing book remains uncertain, as does the question of how it came into the possession of the Van Eeghen family. The book’s original owner, Reyer Claesz., was an Amsterdam Mennonite, and the Uylenburgh family belonged to the same Mennonite circle. Claesz was also a local merchant who knew Uylenburgh; gold letters on the book’s binding bear the inscription “Konstboeck voor Reyer Claessoon,” or “Art book for Reyer Claessoon (Claesz).”

The Van Eeghen family also had longstanding ties to Amsterdam’s Mennonite community, leading a Rijksmuseum representative to speculate that these shared connections may have helped keep the drawing book within the family for generations, according to Vittoria Benzine of Artnet.

Uylenburgh and his work fell into relative obscurity following his death in 1627 or 1628. Today, the Uylenburgh name is better known thanks to Rombout’s brother Hendrick, a prominent Amsterdam art dealer who worked closely with Rembrandt van Rijn. In 1634, Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh, a cousin of Rombout and Hendrick.

This is the first time the book has been on public view since 1935, when it was exhibited at Amsterdam’s now-defunct Museum Fodor. Historians hope to study its illustrations to expand the modern understanding of Uylenburgh’s life, artistic techniques and workshop. In museum press materials, officials say that the book’s significance stems in part from the fact that it has remained entirely intact.

The gift was made in honor of the late C.P. van Eeghen, who was the first to link drawings in the book to Uylenburgh after noticing similarities between its pages and a Uylenburgh drawing sheet displayed at the Rijksmuseum. Art historian Erik P. Löffler subsequently investigated the connection and, in 2013, published his attribution of a group of drawings in the book, with some reservations, to Uylenburgh. His research also contributed to the attribution of five paintings held in Amsterdam’s Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder museum to Uylenburgh’s workshop.

“This gift enables the Rijksmuseum to conduct further research into the work of Rombout Uylenburgh,” a museum statement reads. “Besides a small number of paintings, only two drawings by him are known to have survived, one of which is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.”

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.