Roelant Roghman

Alexandre-Pierre-François Robert-Dumesnil (1778-1864), Paris (L.2200),

his sale, London, Phillips, 18 May 1838, lot 740;

Emile Galichon (1829-1875), Paris (L.856),

his sale, Paris, Clément, 14 May 1875, lot 133;

purchased at this sale by his brother Louis Galichon (1829-1893), Paris (L.1060),

his sale, Paris, Danlos, 9 March 1895, lot 141;

purchased at this sale by Emile Louis Dominique Calando (1840-1898), Paris (L.837),

his son, Emile Pierre Victor Calando (1872-1953), Paris (with his inventory number and inscription in black chalk, verso: No 1614L / R Roghmann),

from whom purchased by Claude Catroux in 1951

This dynamically drawn, large-scale sheet by Roghman, with its illustrious French provenance, is an outstanding example of the artist's freer drawing style.

With the exception of his famous series of more than 240 drawings of Dutch castles¹, executed between 1646 and 1647, the great majority of Roghman's landscapes fall into one of two broad categories. Some are rather delicate landscapes, drawn with a fine pen in very dark brown ink and worked up with grey wash, while others are dashing depictions of rugged scenery, very freely drawn in black chalk and brown ink, usually with brown or grey wash, works which apparently postdate the artist's trip to (and possibly over) the Alps, in the mid-1650s. This latter group, which are usually freely invented, mountainous views, have been classified by Werner Sumowski as the artist's monumental landscapes, owing to their generally heroic themes and grandiose compositions.² Though differing from these 'monumental landscapes' as regards subject matter, the present drawing is very comparable to those works in its combination of media, its free and energetic handling, and its considerable visual power.

^1.H.W.M. van der Wijck and J.W. Niemeijer, De Kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman, 2 vols., Aalphen aan den Rijn 1989-90

^2.W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. X, New York 1992, pp. 5041-3, and nos. 2234-2250, 2257^x, 2258^x