Attributed to Jan Porcellis Ghent circa 1585 - 1632 Zoeterwoude

This is clearly by the same hand as a small group of similar chalk drawings of beach and harbour scenes, including one in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, two in the British Museum, one in Berlin, one in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and one sold, in these Rooms, 9 November 1999, lot 109 (see M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Artists born between 1580 and 1600, 2 vols., Amsterdam 1998, cat.270, illus.).  The Amsterdam drawing and three of the others are signed with the initials IP (or JP); as Schapelhouman and Schatborn have pointed out, although both Jan Porcellis and his son Julius both signed paintings in this way, there is no good reason to attribute the drawings to the latter, who is totally unknown as a draughtsman.