Jan de Bisschop Amsterdam 1628 - 1671 The Hague

Walther Bernt, thence by inheritance to the present owner.

Between 1649 and 1652, when he was a student in Leiden, de Bisschop made many highly atmospheric landscape sketches.  Thereafter, although he did continue to make drawings of Dutch views, he turned his energies more towards the depiction of Italian views and the copying of Old Master paintings (and also to activities outside the arts, for he was a lawyer by profession and only an amateur artist).  The present study, though entirely typical in both format and handling, is unusual in that the landscape setting for the boats is not described in more detail, as, for example, in a drawing such as the representation of The Valckenburgh Ferry Boat, sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 10 May 1994, lot 70.  Yet despite this lack of a landscape context for his subject, de Bisschop's great mastery of the fall of light and the rendering of atmosphere is readily apparent in this highly accomplished drawing.