Property from a Noble European collection
Cornelis Saftleven
Studies of two Spaniels, one sitting, one lying
Live auction begins on:
July 1, 09:30 AM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Noble European collection
Cornelis Saftleven
(Gorinchem 1607 – 1681 Rotterdam)
Studies of two Spaniels, one sitting, one lying
Black chalk and grey wash with traces of red chalk, within brown ink framing lines;
signed with monogram in black chalk: CSL;
bears numbering in brown ink, verso: 152 / 13 / 2 / E /
142 by 195 mm
James Forbes, 16th Lord Forbes (1724-1804), Aberdeenshire,
by descent to his grandson Charles Forbes René, Comte de Montalembert (1810-1870),
by family descent to the present owner
A delightful example of one of Cornelis Saftleven’s characteristic animal studies, this drawing is very similar in handling to a study of a single sleeping spaniel, sold in London in 2018.1 It also relates in an intriguing manner to another sheet by the artist, in the Brussels Museum, in which we find another lying dog extremely similar to the one seen here, but in reverse, which is rather unusually shown next to an animal skull seen from below2; if reversed, the form of that skull is very similar to the faint chalk shape seen beside the signature in the present drawing, which might perhaps be some kind of offset taken from the Brussels sheet.
1.Sale, London, Christie’s, 3 July 2018, lot 43
2.Brussels, Musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique, De Grez Collection, no. 3133 ; W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven, Berlin/New York 1978, p. 169, no. 416, reproduced fig. 99
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