Jacob Cats Altona 1741-1799 Amsterdam

Clowes collection (according to 1954 Houthakker exhibition catalogue);
Bernard Houthakker (L.1272), his sale, in these Rooms, 17-18 November 1975, lot 228 (purchased by the present owners)

Amsterdam, Dessins Exposés chez Bernard Houthakker, 1954, cat. 9a

The numbering on the verso, which was described in the Houthakker sale catalogue as that of Goll van Franckenstein, is in fact Cats' own numbering, as identified and described by Jane Turner (see Jane Shoaf Turner, 'Jacob Cats and the Identification of a "Pseudo-Goll van Franckenstein" Numbering System,' Master Drawings, XXVIII, no.3, 1990, pp.323-31).  Although the inscription, Febr, might at first suggest that this drawing was originally part of a series of representations of the months, the fact that this and the following lot, which clearly represent landscapes of very different seasons, are both inscribed in the same way, means that the inscriptions must actually have another significance.