Adriaen van de Velde

Probably in the posession of the Van Bleysweyck family at the beginning of the 18^th century,

by inheritance in 1734 to Baron Hendrick van Slingelandt (1702-1759),

thence by descent until sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 13 November 1991, lot 342 (as Jan Verkolje the Elder);

sale, London, Christie's, 12 December 1996, lot 289 (as Jan Verkolje the Elder);

sale, New York, Sotheby's, 29 January 2014, lot 161 (as Jan Verkolje the Elder)

Though the inscription on the verso previously led to the conclusion that this drawing was by Jan Verkolje, the style appears much more typical of Adriaen van de Velde, who was in any case known to have been responsible for the composition. Another version of the drawing, in Angers, much the same size as this but more precisely handled and more worked up in areas such as the architecture, is signed and dated a.v.velde f / 1664.¹ Two further drawn versions of the subject, this time with more significant compositional differences, do, however, seem to be by Verkolje, and may be based on a lost final painting by Adriaen van de Velde.²

As the late William W. Robinson established, over fifty of the more than two hundred known drawings by Adriaen van de Velde relate in some way to one of his painted compositions.³ Robinson divided these preparatory drawings into four categories: free landscape studies that were subsequently incorporated into paintings; rapid 'first thought' sketches for compositions; more highly finished, final compositional studies; and large chalk studies of individual figures.

For one painting at least, last seen when it appeared on the art market in 1993, preparatory drawings of the last three types all survive, providing a fascinating visual record of the artist's creative process.⁴ The present drawing is in many respects comparable in style to the initial, more sketchily executed drawing in that series, now in the British Museum⁵; though the former is somewhat more worked up, we see in both sheets very much the same shorthand in the definition of figures and foliage, and broad, rather flat, washes. The more carefully executed drawing in Vienna, which follows the British Museum's study, is, on the other hand, very similar in execution to the version of the present composition in Angers. Also extremely similar in style to the present drawing is another sheet in the British Museum, depicting A Hunting Party in the Grounds of a Country House, which is a study for a painting in the Rothschild family collection⁶, while good parallels for the handling in the background trees can be found in the Rijksmuseum's sketchy drawing of A herdsman with livestock and passing travellers in a southern landscape with an ancient ruin.⁷

Although the painting for which this elegant drawing and the one in Angers must have been studies has not survived, Van de Velde treated the theme of a well-to-do couple departing for the hunt from their country estate several times. The grand painting of 1662, in the Schroder collection, and the elaborate drawn version of the same composition, in the Petit Palais, are particularly impressive.⁸

^1.Angers, Musée Turpin de Crissé, Inv. MTC 4983; see B. Cornelis and M. Schapelhouman, Adriaen van de Velde, Dutch Master of Landscape, exh. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, and London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2016-17, p. 81, fig. 99

^2.Chicago, Art Institute, inv. 1959.533, and sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 8 November 2000, lot 73

^3.W.W. Robinson, 'Preparatory Drawings by Adriaen van de Velde', in Master Drawings, vol. 17 (1979)

^4.Cornelis and Schapelhouman, op. cit., pp. 149-154, cats. 35-38

^5.Inv. Oo,11.258; Ibid., cat. 35

^6.Inv. Oo,11.243; Ibid., p. 82, figs. 101, 102

^7.Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. RP-T-1902-A-4604; Ibid., cat. 50

^8.Ibid., cats. 11-12