A group of olive trees

This appears to be the only signed drawing by this little-known artist, who is represented by only a few drawings and paintings, and eight etchings, all of which represent landscapes with trees. Born in Gorinchem, Johan (or Jan) Lagoor may have been a pupil of Cornelis Vroom (1591-1661), whose works seem to have exerted a certain influence on his style, but there is insufficient documentation to be sure about his artistic formation. By 1645 he was in Haarlem, where he married and was enrolled in the Guild of Saint Luke, serving as one of the guild officials in 1649. Shortly after this he must have moved on to Amsterdam, where he was declared bankrupt in 1650. The 1976-77 exhibition catalogue (op. cit.) suggested a relatively late date for this drawing, around 1650-55. Considering that it is executed on Italian paper, bearing a bird and three mounts watermark (which may be associated with the manufacture of the Brentano family), and that the trees appear to be olives, it offers tantalising hints of an otherwise unrecorded journey to Italy in the final years of Lagoor's life.