Herman Saftleven

17th Century Dutch Old Master Drawing by Herman Saftleven Rhine Landscape

Circa 1660

No Dutch draughtsman ever captured the atmosphere of the rural countryside of Holland with the same atmospheric and engaging simplicity that Van Goyen achieved in drawings such as this. Indeed, his landscapes were seminal in the development of the genre. The present sketch conveys a striking sense of movement within the natural landscape, conveyed by the deftly applied strokes of chalk, from which the artist’s hand can be sensed. The composition is characteristic of his work, with the low horizon affording significance to the broad sky and the soaring birds within. This feeling of windswept motion powerfully evokes the expansive Dutch farmland with which he was evidently preoccupied. 1. Jan van Goyen...

Inscribed “159” in the upper right Provenance: (Possibly) The Van Goyen sketchbook which in 1845 belonged to Andrew Geddes, A.R.A. (1783-1844), London; his sale, Christie's, London,...

Provenance: • Bought from Sicart in Lyon by the Marquis de Chennevières (1820 - 1899) - Chennevières Collection (stamped lower left - Lugt 2072) • Inscribed on the back of the mount "Salle 10/Delestre, 27 February 1899” • Sold in Paris at the Hôtel Drouot during the second Chennevières sale (4 to 7 April 1900, n°44) as François Boucher - number 44 (sold for 18 francs to Roblin) • Sold in Paris at the Hôtel Drouot, 4 and 5 March 1901, n°12 as François Boucher Bibliography: this drawing is cited by Chennevières in "Une collection de dessins d'artistes français" (chapter XVIII, page 24-25) and is number 1033 of the Catalogue de la Collection Chennevières compiled by Louis-Antoine Prat with the collaboration of Laurence Lhinares. This well-documented drawing was given to Boucher by the Marquis de Chennevières, one of the most important collectors of drawings at the end of the 19th century. While the landscape is reminiscent of Boucher's other landscape drawings, our drawing was probably modified at a later stage by the addition of the two figures in the right foreground and by the slight enhancement of the horizon line behind them. 1. François Boucher, the master of French rocaille The extraordinary career of Francois Boucher was unmatched by his contemporaries in versatility, consistency, and output. For many, particularly the writers and collectors who led the revival of interest in the French rococo during the last century, his sensuous beauties and plump cupids represent the French eighteenth century at its most typical. His facility with the brush, even when betraying the occasional superficiality of his art, enabled him to master every aspect of painting – history and mythology, portraiture, landscape, ordinary life and, as part of larger compositions, even still life. He had been trained as an engraver, and the skills of a draftsman, which he imbued in the studio of Jean-Francois Cars (1661 – 1738), stood him in good stead throughout his career; his delightful drawings are one of the most sought-after aspects of his oeuvre. As a student of Francois Lemoyne (1688 - 1737), he mastered the art of composition. The four years he spent in Italy, from 1727-1731, educated him in the works of the masters, classics, and history, that his modest upbringing had denied him. On his return to Paris in 1734, he gained full membership of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with his splendid Rinaldo and Armida (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Although, throughout his career, he occasionally painted subjects taken from the Bible, and would always have considered himself first as a history painter, his own repertoire of heroines, seductresses, flirtatious peasant girls and erotic beauties was better suited to a lighter, more decorative subject matter. His mastery of technique and composition enabled him to move from large scale...

France 18th Century, Pastorale (Arcadian Landscape) Black chalk and heightenings of white gouache on blue-grey paper 19 x 31 cm Framed : 34.5 x 46.5 cm The atmosphere and the subje...

This landscape, masterfully executed in pen and wash by Louis-Jean Desprez around 1779, probably represents a view of the Roman countryside. The treatment of the trees is very similar to that of two engravings which Desprez executed in Rome, The Island of Cythera and The Temple of Love. 1. Louis-Jean Desprez, a cosmopolitan life between Italy and Sweden Born in Auxerre in 1743, Louis-Jean Desprez probably began his apprenticeship with the engraver Charles-Nicolas Cochin...

PROVENANCE Mortimer Brandt, until 1993 and thus by descent in the family to Private Collection, Baltimore until the present time We would like to thank Charles Beddington for ident...