Old Master Drawings

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Lot 93
  • 93

Esaias van de Velde

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Description

  • Esaias van de Velde
  • late summer landscape with peasants on a road, a church and a village in the background

  • Signed and dated in black chalk: E.V. VELDE.1627

  • Black chalk

Provenance

Jacobus A. Klaver, Amsterdam (bears his mark, not in Lugt, on the backing), his sale, Amsterdam, 10 May 1994, lot 63

Exhibited

Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, Tekeningen van oude meesters. De verzameling Jacobus A. Klaver, 1993 (catalogue by Marijn Schapelhouman and Peter Schatborn), no. 26

Catalogue Note

The perfect balance of this composition suggests that for all its apparent spontaneity and naturalism, it was actually composed in the studio rather than executed 'naar het leven.' In the course of his short life, Esaias van de Velde's draughtsmanship evolved and developed extremely rapidly; by this relatively late date, the late mannerist energy of his early works has given way to great compositional serenity and a mastery of economical line and shading, the latter never more apparent than in the depiction of a ripe cornfield to the right of the present work.