Aert Schouman Dordrecht 1710 - 1792 The Hague

Although Aert Schouman clearly made considerable numbers of topographical and landscape drawings and watercolours, the great majority of these are now in the collections of museums and archives;  in his monograph on the artist, Laurens Bol noted that the City Archives in Schouman's native Dordrecht alone posessed no fewer than 114 such works (see L.J. Bol, Aart Schouman; Ingenious Painter and Draughtsman, Doornspijk 1991, p. 63).  Schouman's topographical landscapes therefore appear on the market very much less frequently than do his more familiar watercolours of birds and animals.  Indeed, the only watercolour comparable in quality to this to have been sold in recent years is the splendid View of Dordrecht from the South-West, formerly in the Unicorno Collection (sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 19 May 2004, lot 206).  

The inscription on the verso identifies this as a view on the Papendrecht Dike, which lies just outside the artist's native city of Dordrecht.  Schouman depicted the city and its surroundings in many drawings and watercolours, the majority of which were, according to Bol, made in the years 1739-1750.  The present drawing does appear to be dated on the reverse, and this date seems to be 1737, but this last part of the inscription is somewhat damaged from a previous mounting, so the reading of the date is by no means certain.  It is, however, broadly supported by the fact that another watercolour showing the Papendrecht Dike, in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam, is dated 1739, as is the previously mentioned View of Dordrecht from the South-West, a work that is extremely similar to this in tonality and handling.