Herman Saftleven

Catherine II, Empress of Russia (1729-1796), Saint Petersburg,

Paul I, Emperor of Russia (1754-1801), Saint Petersburg (L.2061);

State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (L.2681a),

sale, Leipzig, C.G. Boerner, 29 April 1931, lot 224 (with another);

with Katrin Bellinger, Kunsthandel, Munich,

where acquired by Diane A. Nixon in 2000

W. Schulz, Herman Saftleven, Berlin/New York 1982, p. 437, no. 1230

Rhine landscapes and other atmospheric river views make up a significant proportion of Saftleven's surviving drawn oeuvre, and quite a number of his drawings of these subjects share the same small-scale vertical format seen in the Nixon drawing. Saftleven also made figure studies in this format, including a delightful series of satirical watercolors of single figures, drawn on the back of playing cards.¹

Another river view on the same scale, very similar in mood and also formerly in the Hermitage collection, was sold from the Roesler Collection in 1990.² Saftleven himself seems to have made second versions of some of these compositions, which must have been very popular, and they were also widely copied. An unsigned second version of the present drawing, possibly autograph, was formerly on the Paris art market.³

^1.For example, the pair sold New York, Sotheby's, 25 January 2012, lot 156

^2.Sale, New York, Christie's, 31 May 1990, lot 91

^3.Sale, Paris, Christie's, 17 March 2005, lot 244