Herman Saftleven Rotterdam 1609 - 1685 Utrecht

Grimaldi collection, Berlin, inv. no. 60;
Sale, Berlin, Lepke, 5 May 1914, lot 91, reproduced plate 8 (to Roos for Reichsmarks 900);
Anonymous sale, Berlin, Axel Kettner, 3-4 October 1963, when bought by the Herwegs.

W. Schulz, Herman Saftleven 1609-1685, Berlin/New York 1982, p. 155, no. 114;
Die Weltkunst, 15 September 1963, vol. XXXIII, no. 18, reproduced p. 24 (advertisment for Axel Kettner, see Provenance).

Saftleven based the left hand part of the composition on a signed chalk and wash drawing, here reproduced fig. 1, which was  formerly in the F.C. Butôt collection (sold in Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 16 November 1993, lot 95; see Schulz, under Literature, p. 419, no. 1143).  The drawing is much earlier than the present painting, dating from the mid-1640s; such a practice was not unusual for Saftleven, who used drawings made in situ in the 1640s for his Rhenish capriccios of the 1660s-80s.  These capriccios are often on copper, but otherwise this support is unusual in his oeuvre.

Sold with the certificate of Dr. Walther Bernt, dated 6 March 1963.