Cornelis Dusart Haarlem 1660 - 1704

Jhr. C. Repelaer, London, before 1965
Saam and Lily Nijstad, The Hague (Inv.nr. N203)

Kleur en raffinement, Tekeningen uit de Unicorno collectie, Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis and Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, 1994/95, Zwolle 1994, cat. no. 22c.

This drawing belongs to a series of similar circular caricatures by Dusart, some dated 1690, others of which are in Linz and Vienna.   Lively and rustic, yet at the same time elegantly drawn and coloured, these works encapsulate the way in which Dusart's figure and composition types, and also his drawing technique, was heavily influenced by that of his great teacher Adriaen van Ostade, and yet transcended these influences to create a very personal style that anticipates developments in early 18th-century Dutch art.   This fascinating balance between backward and forward-looking tendencies in Dusart's work becomes ever more apparent after Ostade's death in 1685 - five years before the execution of these drawings - and is also particularly evident when the watercolours in question are in as fine condition as is the present example.