Jan Josefsz. van Goyen

Rudolf Peltzer (1825-1910), Cologne (L.2231),

his estate sale, Stuttgart, H.G. Gutekunst, 13–14 May 1914, lot 155 (sold to C. G. Boerner for Mk 280);

Th. Apel-Ermlitz, Leipzig;

with C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, 1949;

Private collection, West Germany;

with Schaeffer Galleries, New York,

Private collection, New York,

thence by descent

H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen 1596-1656, vol. I, Amsterdam 1972, p. 29, no. 78; vol. III (supplement), Doornspijk 1987, p. 42, reproduced

As Dr. Beck noted, this drawing belongs to a group of similarly conceived sheets, all the same size, many sharing the same watermark, all fully signed and dated 1627, and all bearing similar numberings to that seen here.¹ He believes that these drawings originate from a single sketchbook. Just under twenty such sheets are known today, but the numberings that these drawings bear indicate that there must originally have been around fifty drawings in the sketchbook.

Beck also points out that whereas the drawings in the sketchbooks dating from later in Van Goyen's career are - as one might expect of a sketchbook page - rapidly drawn notes of locations and motifs that might be of use in subsequent paintings, the drawings from the 1627 sketchbook are complete, independent works, each signed and dated, and none corresponding to any painting by the artist.

As is the case for the great majority of Van Goyen's early drawings, this serene, atmospheric landscape is rendered with a remarkable economy of means, and is very different in handling from the much more detailed, worked up drawings that he was to produce for most of his career, such as lot 157.

^1.Beck, op. cit., 1972, pp. 27, 29