Pieter Fransz. de Grebber

H. Hamal (2^nd half of the 18^th century), Liège (L. 1231);

Marcel Puech (1919–2001), Avignon (his mark, not in Lugt);

By whom sold, Monaco, Christie's, 2 July 1993, lot 54 (as circle of Claude Vignon);

Pierre Pfeiffer, London;

By whom offered, Paris, Christie's, 15 November 2006, lot 78.

Munich, Bernheimer, The Pfeiffer Collection of Old Master Drawings, 2001, pp. 26–27, reproduced (as circle of Claude Vignon).

Drawings by de Grebber are relatively rare to appear on the market, and the present sheet is a characteristic example of de Grebber’s handling of multi-figure scenes, where the composition is aligned along strong diagonal axis, dynamically culminating at a focal point, in this case the Virgin and Child.¹ The artist adds dramatism to the scene by shrouding in shadows the kneeling figures in the foreground, a trick he employs in many of his works. A close stylistic comparable would be The Descent of the Holy Spirit in the collection of the British Museum, London,² where the background figures are sketched with spirited light strokes, while the shadows are conveyed with bolder, more refined lines and prominent hatching.

¹K. Andrews, 'On Some Drawings by Pieter de Grebber', Master Drawings, XXII, no. 3, pp. 294–98, pls 12–23.

²Inv. no. SL,5226.104.