The month June: A river landscape with sheep being washed and sheared

Part of a series depicting the twelve months executed in 1667, this immaculately preserved sheet demonstrates Saftleven's neat and characteristic technique. Only four drawings from the series are still known, but a complete series showing the twelve months is in Weimar (inv. 5385-5396; see Schulz, op. cit., nos. 825-836, ill.). This drawing comes from the collection of Baron van Pallandt, who inherited a substantial collection that was probably started by Pieter van den Brande, and who sold 135 drawings from the collection in 1972 (see provenance). Drawings from this collection are almost without exception particularly well preserved and many sheets, as is the case with this one, still retain their framing lines or mounts from the 17th or 18th century (for more on the Van Pallandt collection, see C. Dumas and R.-J. te Rijdt, Kleur en raffinement, Tekeningen uit de Unicorno collectie, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis and Dordrechts Museum, 1994-1995, under nos. 38, 39).