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| Ferdinand Bol Scholar at a table ca. 1641-56 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ferdinand Bol Angel departing from the family of Tobias ca. 1640-45 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"Despite the fact that Ferdinand Bol was one of Amsterdam's most successful painters in the seventeenth century, his oeuvre does not attract the interest these days that is his due. For a long time, his stylistic 'disloyalty' to his teacher, Rembrandt, has counted against him. But today art historians put forward other reasons for their lack of enthusiasm: Bol's figures are found to lack expressiveness and the way they are executed is held to be rather stiff."
– Margriet van Eikema Hommes, Art and Allegiance in the Dutch Golden Age (Amsterdam University Press, 2012)
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| Ferdinand Bol Hagar in the wilderness with angel before 1670 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ferdinand Bol Thisbe with the body of Pyramus before 1670 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ferdinand Bol Joseph with his father before Pharoah ca. 1645-52 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| FerdinandBol Moses with the Ten Commandments ca. 1658-66 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ferdinand Bol Noli me tangere ca. 1641-45 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped low, and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know now where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not."
– from the book of John, chapter 20 (Authorized Version, first published in 1611)
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| Ferdinand Bol Elisha and the Shunammite woman ca. 1634-38 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ferdinand Bol Flora ca. 1635-39 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ferdinand Bol Joseph sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites Genesis chapter 37 verse 17-28 ca. 1632-33 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Ferdinand Bol River landscape before 1670 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Ferdinand Bol Astrologer before 1670 etching National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Ferdinand Bol OId man with beard before 1670 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ferdinand Bol Portrait of Rembrandt van Rijn ca. 1640 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
"The son of a well-to-do family (his father was a master surgeon) Ferdinand Bol was the first of a series of Dordrecht artists who studied or apprenticed with Rembrandt. He enjoyed a great public success in Amsterdam, painted many guild portraits, two major works for the new Town Hall, and, quite unlike Rembrandt, held many public positions, from serving as a governor of the artists' Guild of St. Luke to being sergeant of his neighborhood's civic guard. The culmination of his career was his second marriage at the age of fifty-three to a very wealthy woman. Bol waited to post the banns until two days after Rembrandt's funeral, perhaps because after this remunerative marriage he intended to stop painting altogether!"
– from Rembrandt's Enterprise : the Studio and the Market by Svetlana Alpers (University of Chicago Press, 1988)