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Lot Essay
The subject of the present drawing remains mysterious. Van Regteren Altena suggested in 1983 that it represented a seated judge from one of the Germanic tribes, but this figure swathed in his voluminous cloak might also be a gypsy, a magician or a figure from folklore. The objects at his feet, which van Regteren Altena identified as rocks similar to those seen in the foreground of some engravings by Dürer, may also be books. Despite its enigmatic significance, the drawing is a monumental tour de force in which vigorous strokes of black chalk and black ink give the figure’s drapery an almost sculptural quality, while the characterful face is worked with smaller, more intricate lines. A similarly free and powerful use of the pen, and a similar costume, are visible in the High Priest and his Servant in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, while another draped figure swathed in a mantle with similarly sculpted folds appears in the Gesticulating standing man in the Fondation Custodia, Paris (van Regteren Altena 1983, op. cit., nos. 53 and 572). Van Regteren Altena dated these drawings from the first decade of the 17th Century, during the first few years of de Gheyn's residence in The Hague.
This places the drawing at the same date as de Gheyn's earliest representations of wichcraft and sabbats, a theme which particularly engaged him in the first years of the 17th Century. His fascination with the topic found expression in a series of exuberant compositions, such as the Witches' scene of 1603 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes (van Regteren Altena 1983, op. cit., no. 521) or the Witches at work under an arched vault of 1604 in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (van Regeren Altena 1983, op. cit., no. 523). Although the present drawing does not share the gleeful grotesquerie of these images, it does have a similarly arcane atmosphere, which also has parallels with the studies that de Gheyn made at the same period of gypsies and fortune tellers. The figure's baggy mantle and the dark, firm lines of hatching can be compared with the costumes and execution in the study of Three gypsies in the Art Institute of Chicago (van Regteren Altena 1983, op. cit., no. 535). Though undated, the latter must predate 1606 as one of the figures was copied by Hendrick Goudt (circa 1583-1648), who left the Netherlands for Rome in that year. Once again, the stylistic evidence supports a date for the present drawing of circa 1605.
This places the drawing at the same date as de Gheyn's earliest representations of wichcraft and sabbats, a theme which particularly engaged him in the first years of the 17th Century. His fascination with the topic found expression in a series of exuberant compositions, such as the Witches' scene of 1603 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes (van Regteren Altena 1983, op. cit., no. 521) or the Witches at work under an arched vault of 1604 in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (van Regeren Altena 1983, op. cit., no. 523). Although the present drawing does not share the gleeful grotesquerie of these images, it does have a similarly arcane atmosphere, which also has parallels with the studies that de Gheyn made at the same period of gypsies and fortune tellers. The figure's baggy mantle and the dark, firm lines of hatching can be compared with the costumes and execution in the study of Three gypsies in the Art Institute of Chicago (van Regteren Altena 1983, op. cit., no. 535). Though undated, the latter must predate 1606 as one of the figures was copied by Hendrick Goudt (circa 1583-1648), who left the Netherlands for Rome in that year. Once again, the stylistic evidence supports a date for the present drawing of circa 1605.