Rembrandt's parents apprenticed him to the Leiden artist Jacob Isaacsz. van Swanenburg (1571-1638). The beginning of that apprenticeship is usually dated to 1621. The choice of Van Swanenburg was perhaps prompted by the reputation of his father, Isaac van Swanenburg (1537-1614), for a long time Leiden's most prominent artist. Jacob van Swanenburg was not only the son of a famous father, he also had an international career behind him. At about the age of 20 he had left for Italy where he lived and worked in Venice, Rome and especially Naples. He did not return to Leiden until 1516, where the inheritance of his father, who had died two years earlier, awaited him. He established his studio on the Langebrug and it is there that Rembrandt must have received his lessons, just a few minutes walk from the Latin school and the University. Those lessons were mainly technical in nature. No traces are known in Rembrandt's oeuvre of any influence by Van Swanenburg.
This drawing of an elegant company in a festively decorated room is the only one that can be attributed to Van Swanenburg with any certainty. It is true that the inscription is not considered his own signature, but there is no reason to doubt the correctness of the name. Over time, some other drawings, especially landscapes, have been attributed to Van Swanenburg, but none of those attributions is very convincing.
We mainly know elegant companies like this from Southern Netherlandish artists such as Hans Vredeman de Vries (1525-1609) and Louis de Caullery (ca. 1580-1621). Both artists have a number of works attributed to them of partying and dancing figures placed in a kind of perspective box. Van Swanenburg must have been familiar with their work.
Pen and brown ink, grey wash, 143 x 187 mm, PK-1940-T-1.