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Lot Essay
Part of a group of drawings, all by the same hand, which appear to come from one or more sketchbooks representing motifs from England, Frankfurt, Zeeland and possibly Bruges or Antwerp. Three further sheets from the sketchbook are in the van Regteren Altena collection, while three are in the British Museum, five in the Louvre and two in Frankfurt. All are single sheets, with studies only on one side, and many have been trimmed; the present sheet and the others in the van Regteren Altena collection are unusual in preserving what seem to be their original dimensions and numbering.
Much of the debate over the attribution of the group has focused on the British Museum drawings, which feature identifiably British motifs, including a view of Hampton Court and a detail of two heads copied from a painting by Jacques de Gheyn II at Ham House. A.E. Popham believed that the British Museum sheets should be attributed to Wenceslas Hollar (1607-1677; see 'Wenceslas Hollar', Old Master Drawings, II, no. 6, September 1927, pp. 29-30), in which he was followed by Edward Croft-Murray (E. Croft-Murray and P. Hulton, Catalogue of British Drawings in the British Museum: XVI and XVII centuries, London, 1960, nos. 2 and 50-51). When I.Q. van Regteren Altena contacted the Museum with a suggested attribution for the series to Jacques de Gheyn III, Popham maintained his belief in an attribution to Hollar, which may account for the slight diffidence with which van Regteren Altena approached the question of the sketchbook's attribution in his 1983 catalogue.
An attribution to Jacques de Gheyn III seems, however, more plausible than that to Hollar. No other drawing by Hollar in silverpoint is known, whereas Jacques de Gheyn III would have had ample opportunity to learn the technique from his father, who also made use of the medium. The younger de Gheyn is also known to have travelled to England in 1622 as part of the entourage of his neighbour and friend Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687). Huygens's letters home record, among other things, a visit to Ham, which offers a much more plausible context for the British Museum's copy after Jacques de Gheyn II. While there is no clear reason for Hollar to have copied figures from that picture, rather than from one of the many Old Masters on view at the house, it is much easier to understand the young Jacques de Gheyn III feeling inspired to record his father's picture hanging in the collection.
We are grateful to Simon Turner and Alena Volrábová, who on the basis of photographs have confirmed that an attribution to Hollar appears unlikely; and to An van Camp, who has generously shared her research on the series for her forthcoming catalogue Drawing in Silver and Gold: Five Centuries of Drawing in Metalpoint (to accompany an exhibition to be held in 2015 in Washington DC and London).
Much of the debate over the attribution of the group has focused on the British Museum drawings, which feature identifiably British motifs, including a view of Hampton Court and a detail of two heads copied from a painting by Jacques de Gheyn II at Ham House. A.E. Popham believed that the British Museum sheets should be attributed to Wenceslas Hollar (1607-1677; see 'Wenceslas Hollar', Old Master Drawings, II, no. 6, September 1927, pp. 29-30), in which he was followed by Edward Croft-Murray (E. Croft-Murray and P. Hulton, Catalogue of British Drawings in the British Museum: XVI and XVII centuries, London, 1960, nos. 2 and 50-51). When I.Q. van Regteren Altena contacted the Museum with a suggested attribution for the series to Jacques de Gheyn III, Popham maintained his belief in an attribution to Hollar, which may account for the slight diffidence with which van Regteren Altena approached the question of the sketchbook's attribution in his 1983 catalogue.
An attribution to Jacques de Gheyn III seems, however, more plausible than that to Hollar. No other drawing by Hollar in silverpoint is known, whereas Jacques de Gheyn III would have had ample opportunity to learn the technique from his father, who also made use of the medium. The younger de Gheyn is also known to have travelled to England in 1622 as part of the entourage of his neighbour and friend Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687). Huygens's letters home record, among other things, a visit to Ham, which offers a much more plausible context for the British Museum's copy after Jacques de Gheyn II. While there is no clear reason for Hollar to have copied figures from that picture, rather than from one of the many Old Masters on view at the house, it is much easier to understand the young Jacques de Gheyn III feeling inspired to record his father's picture hanging in the collection.
We are grateful to Simon Turner and Alena Volrábová, who on the basis of photographs have confirmed that an attribution to Hollar appears unlikely; and to An van Camp, who has generously shared her research on the series for her forthcoming catalogue Drawing in Silver and Gold: Five Centuries of Drawing in Metalpoint (to accompany an exhibition to be held in 2015 in Washington DC and London).