Hendrik Meijer Amsterdam 1744 - 1793 London

The tradition of sets of related images depicting the seasons or months of the year has its origins in medieval manuscript illumination, but became increasingly popular in the context of paintings, drawings and prints in the sixteenth century.  During the 1550s and '60s, Pieter Bruegel the Elder made his famous series of paintings and print designs with seasonal subjects, and in 1580-81 Hans Bol executed the wonderful set of twelve circular drawings of the months, formerly in the Koenigs collection (sold, New York, Sotheby's, 23 January 2001, lot 11), which seems to be the earliest set of drawings of the months to have survived intact.  

Although such themed sets of images continued to be produced during the seventeenth century, their popularity does, however, seem to have waned somewhat at that time, only to undergo a great revival in Dutch art of the eighteenth century.  Since the majority of drawings and watercolours from this period that represent the months of the year are rather complete and decorative, many such sets must have been separated over the years, but nonetheless a certain number have remained together, including the present drawings by Meijer, executed in 1772.  Other complete sets to have survived include those by Simon Fokke (1765), Jacobus Buys (1771-3), H.P. Schouten (1789) and Jacob Cats (1791), in addition to at least nine drawings from a 1741 set by Cornelis Troost (for further information, see H.W. Niemeijer, Cornelis Troost 1696-1750, Assen 1973, pp. 345-6, 390-3, 423).   The subjects chosen by each of these 18th-century artists to illustrate the various months varied considerably:  whereas Troost and his pupil Buys focussed on the theatrical, human and urban aspects of the calendar, each month being represented by seasonal festivals or domestic activities, Meijer here concentrates on rural and agricultural scenes appropriate to the month in question.